TiVo: Patent win, merger halt?
March 6, 2020
By Chris Forrester
TiVo has won another battle to protect its patents. An appeal before the US Court of Appeals has backed a decision issued by the US International Trade Commission. While the patents under discussion have in themselves expired, the verdict is likely to help further decisions pending of a similar nature.
The next argument with Comcast is due to be decided on March 26th, and another is pending for a decision in June.
“We understand the value of our patented technology and why Comcast has relied on it heavily since launching its X1 platform,” Arvin Patel, TiVo’s chief intellectual property officer, said in a statement. “We are hopeful today’s announcement will encourage Comcast to put their customers first and license our IP just as the other top nine U.S. pay-TV providers do.”
Meanwhile, a TiVo shareholder is mounting a Class Action in a Delaware federal court and hoping to halt – or at least pause – a proposed $3 billion merger plan between TiVo and Xperi Corp.
Jordan Rosenblatt, in a filing to the US Securities & Exchange Commission, argues that TiVo’s company disclosure on the merger was “false and misleading”.
The merger was announced back in December 2019 and at the time said to be creating “one of the largest licensing companies in the world”. Xperi has a portfolio of patents in semi-conductors and also owns various audio-visual brands.
TiVo, now owned by Rovi as a result of a reverse take-over by TiVo, had planned to split itself into two businesses, but pending the Xperi link has now scrapped that plan.