Quibi sees off Eko tech challenge
July 14, 2020
Quibi has won its legal battle with developer Eko who had alleged the theft of their intellectual property to power Quibi’s Turnstyle feature.
Eko sued in March, saying Quibi stole its tech to achieve Turnstyle, the crucial function that switches video from vertical to horizontal formats in real time for mobile users. Eko claimed that the company shared its technology with Quibi employees bound by non-disclosure agreements.
But a US court has now denied Eko’s motion for a preliminary injunction in its case against Quibi.
The judgement said that Eko “fails to make a sufficient showing of irreparable harm to Eko’s reputation and goodwill because of the technical implementation of Turnstyle that allegedly resulted from misappropriation of Eko’s claimed trade secret Mobile Device Optimized RTS.”
The ruling also said that Eko had failed to establish that two of its existing commercial relationships had been harmed by Quibi’s launch, or that the company had suffered from negative consumer perception as a result of Quibi’s launch.
Quibi said: “We are extremely pleased the Court ruled today that Eko has not presented a credible case for a preliminary injunction. Eko has no case against Quibi – this is a frivolous lawsuit brought by a company and CEO looking for a payday. We will continue to aggressively defend ourselves.”
Meanwhile Quibi continues to experience download and subscriber levels far below its launch expectations. The service only managed to convert a little under 10 per cent of its early wave of users into paying subscribers according to figures from mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower