TiVo Opens New Lawsuits Against Comcast for Patent Infringement
The TiVo subsidiary Rovi has filed two lawsuits against Comcast in federal district courts. The suits charge that Comcast is infringing on eight of TiVo's patents in its X1 platform. The technologies in dispute include those for pausing and unpausing live video on various devices, resuming live streams already in progress, and voice input.
This isn't the first time Rovi has taken on Comcast. In April 2016, Rovi sued Comcast saying it infringed 14 patents. While Comcast prevailed on most charges, a November 2017 ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) took Rovi's side on two charges. One of those involved cloud DVR functionality, which Comcast has been forced to disable in its X1 boxes pending appeal.
TiVo will also file a complaint with the ITC to block X1 boxes from being imported into the country.
Rovi acquired TiVo in April, 2016 and took the company's name for the combined company.
Comcast responded to the latest lawsuits with attitude, saying all X1 products and services were independently created by the company, and that Rovi is trying to get money for technology it didn't create. “Rovi’s attempt to extract these unfounded payments for its aging and increasingly obsolete patent portfolio has failed to date," Comcast said in a statement.
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