BBiTV wins initial patent battle against AT&T, Dish, Amazon
December 23, 2020
By Chris Forrester
A Texas court has ruled in favour of Broadband iTV Inc (BBiTV) in its patent actions against DirecTV/AT&T, Dish network and Amazon over the company’s VoD patents which used STB and cellular technology.
The Austin Division of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that BBiTV’s patent infringement actions against the four named business “will stand and are final”.
The alleged infringement action saw the four defendants argue – unsuccessfully – for a narrow and very precise interpretation of the claimed patents. The Court’s ruling means that the claims against the four broadcasting giants can now proceed.
“We are pleased that the infringement litigation will consider the highly relevant totality of this intellectual property as we move forward with the proceedings,” said Feinberg Day Kramer Alberti Lim Tonkovich & Belloli LLP partner Rob Kramer, lead counsel for BBiTV. “This 19-0 [claims] victory is an early reinforcement of BBiTV’s vigorous intellectual property defense.”
Hawaii-based BBiTV holds 70 patents developed by BBiTV’s CTO Milton Diaz. The actions focus on the following patents:
Against AT&T (Case No. 6:19-cv-712):
US Patent No. 10,028,026: “System for addressing on-demand TV program content on TV services platform of a digital TV services provider,” issued July 17, 2018.
US Patent No. 10,349,101: “System for addressing on-demand TV program content on TV services platform of a digital TV services provider,” issued July 9, 2019.
US Patent No. 9,998,791: “Video-on-demand content delivery method for providing video-on-demand services to TV service subscribers,” issued June 12, 2018.
US Patent No. 9,648,388: “Video-on-demand content delivery system for providing video-on-demand services to TV services subscribers,” issued May 9, 2017.
Against DirecTV and Dish (Case Nos. 6:19-cv-714 and 6:19-cv-716, respectively):
US Patent No. 10,506,269: “System for addressing on-demand TV program content on TV services platform of a digital TV services provider,” issued Dec. 10, 2019.
US Patent No. 10,028,026 (itemised above).
US Patent No. 9,998,791 (itemised above).
US Patent No. 9,648,388 (itemised above).
BBiTV filed its action against Amazon in October, but the other 3 actions were filed in December 2019.
The DirecTV case references products such as the Genie HD DVR set-top, which can use the Internet to receive and view content, as well as DirecTV apps for mobile devices. BBiTV’s Dish lawsuit points to Internet-connected set-tops/receivers such as Dish’s Hopper-branded boxes and the Dish Anywhere app for mobile devices.
BBiTV, back in 2019, said it had filed the complaints after letters were sent to each defendant about engaging in licensing discussions and those efforts went nowhere, according to Robert Kramer, BBiTV’s lead counsel.