The International Trade Commission (ITC) has again backed TiVo in a long-running patents dispute against Comcast. The ITC issued its verdict as a “final determination” that Comcast’s X1 platform had infringed the TiVo patents.

“This is yet another win for TiVo – our second victory against Comcast this year. The Federal Circuit’s decision on March 2 affirmed the ITC’s final determination in our first ITC case against Comcast to ban the importation of Comcast’s set-top boxes that infringe Rovi’s patents. Today’s final determination in our second ITC case against Comcast reaffirms that Comcast’s X1 entertainment experience continues to violate TiVo’s patent rights,” said Arvin Patel, EVP/chief intellectual property officer at Rovi Corp, a TiVo company. “These rulings confirm that Comcast is subject to the ITC’s jurisdiction and cannot avoid liability for infringing TiVo’s patents.”

“We are thrilled by this ruling and it proves yet again that Comcast is a serial violator of TiVo’s patents. TiVo will continue to litigate until Comcast enters into a fair licensing agreement with TiVo and pays us what it owes,” added Patel.

In response to the ruling, a Comcast spokesman said: “Rovi is once again misleading the public about its litigation with Comcast. Today’s order will have no impact on either our customers or our business. Rovi has admitted – and the ITC ruled – that our current system is non-infringing since we previously removed the insignificant highlighting feature related to the patent addressed in this ruling.”

There is another patent action pending. On May 23rd 2019, the ITC instituted an additional investigation into Comcast for infringing other Rovi/TiVo patents. The trial in this third investigation took place in January 2020, and a final decision is expected in Q4 2020.

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