Advanced Television

Tenth Rovi patent claim defeated by Virgin

April 7, 2015

Virgin Media has successfully defeated yet another patent infringement claim in a series of unsuccessful actions by Rovi Corporation against the company.

Rovi has for the second time withdrawn an infringement claim, and agreed to the revocation of a patent, rather than have the patent tested in court. The patent in question related to a method of redirecting network traffic to enable one network server to respond on behalf of another.

This is the tenth successive defeat for Rovi, out of ten they have disputed with Virgin Media. Every Rovi patent to reach trial or final order in the UK so far has been found invalid, with Rovi repeatedly ordered to reimburse Virgin Media’s legal costs. In this case, the High Court Judge ordered Rovi to pay the infringement costs on the rarely awarded and elevated “indemnity basis” rather than the normal “standard basis”. This reflected the fact that Rovi’s claim was, in the words of the Judge, “always a speculative one”.

Brigitte Trafford, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Virgin Media, said: “Rovi has recognised that their arguments do not stand up to scrutiny yet again, and the Judge has agreed. All of Rovi’s ten patents challenged by us in the UK Courts have been found invalid. This case has strengthened our resolve to fight Rovi’s unfounded claims.”

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