Advanced Television

TiVo wins Comcast patent spat

June 5, 2019

By Chris Forrester

A US Trade Commission judge has found that some Comcast receivers infringe TiVo patents, although also determined that another TiVo patent was invalid.

Judge MaryJoan McNamara is also studying Comcast for infringing six Rovi/TiVo patents including: X1 Sports App, multi-room DVR features, and set-top box integrations of apps like Netflix.

This is the second time that the International Trade Commission (ITC) has found  in favour of TiVo. In November 2017, the ITC issued a final ruling that Comcast had infringed two Rovi patents around ‘remote record’ functionality. Comcast subsequently elected to remove this function from their products.

“We are thrilled by yet another legal victory,” said Arvin Patel, EVP/Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Rovi Corp., TiVo’s parent company. “This decision demonstrates Comcast’s repeated infringement of Rovi’s patents. We hope that today’s decision will encourage Comcast to pay the necessary licensing fees so their customers can once again access advanced cable features.”

TiVo holds some 2271 patents in the US and more than 5500 elsewhere in the world. In 2018 it was awarded another 489 patents.

Categories: Articles, Policy, Regulation