ActiveVideo Networks said today that it is poised to accelerate deployments of CloudTV, a virtual set-top box platform for TV navigation, guides and other content, following Friday’s appellate court decision to uphold an award of $260 million or more in a patent infringement suit against Verizon Communications.
According to Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo, the decision provides immediate benefits to the company, most notably the assurance to both customers and potential infringers that ActiveVideo is unchallenged in its rights to core technology patents.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday, August 24, affirmed both the original jury award in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, as well as subsequent interest and royalties awarded by Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the District Court.
The Court of Appeals also remanded to the District Court calculation of an ongoing per-subscriber royalty, should an analysis of Verizon’s current FiOS system reveal continued infringement of ActiveVideo patents. The decision reaffirms ActiveVideo’s rights as the inventor of industry-leading technology in the delivery of advanced television applications such as video-on-demand (VOD) and interactive TV.
“The technologies developed by ActiveVideo are today powering a wide-range of innovative services from the network cloud,” said Miller.
“We’re gratified that the Court of Appeals has upheld our company’s rights to its inventions, and look forward to helping the multichannel and CE industries benefit from the deployment of CloudTV based services.”
In the decision announced Friday, the Court of Appeals upheld three key ActiveVideo patents that are fundamental to interactive television services such as video on demand, including:
ActiveVideo filed suit against Verizon in May, 2010, alleging infringement on the four patents by the Verizon FiOS system. The initial $115 million award in August, 2011 followed a three-week jury trial; Judge Jackson subsequently issued two rulings awarding ActiveVideo $24.1 million in supplemental damages and interest, and monthly royalties of $2.74 for each FiOS subscriber. ActiveVideo has been represented throughout the case by Morgan Lewis & Bockius, LLP.
CloudTV is available on approximately 10 million screens in the United States and abroad with Cablevision Systems, Oceanic Time Warner Cable and other operators, as well as on Philips-brand NetTVs.
Earlier thisyear, ActiveVideo also announced that Comcast is using CloudTV in an enhanced VOD user experience trial.
