Invidi Technologies, a developer of
addressable-advertising solutions for TV operators,
has sued Cablevision Systems and targeted-ad vendor
Visible World, alleging they infringe a patent Invidi
owns for delivering addressable ads.
The suit was filed May 5 in U.S. District Court for
the District of Delaware.
Cablevision declined to comment on the Invidi
lawsuit.
In a statement, Visible World said: “Visible World,
the leading provider of targeted television advertising
solutions, has extensive experience developing and
delivering addressable technology to clients. We are
confident that upon examination, the claims of patent
infringement made against Visible World will prove
to be without merit, and the company will prevail in
its defense of the actions brought against it. Moreover,
the day-to-day business operations of Visible World
will not be impacted in any way by this dispute.”
DAMAGES SOUGHT
Invidi seeks unspecific damages as well as an order barring
Cablevision and Visible World from using the patent.
Cablevision has deployed the Visible World system
across its entire footprint in the New York metropolitan
area, allowing it to deliver different local ads to approximately
3 million digital cable subscribers based
on individual household information, such as income.
In March, Cablevision announced that it worked
with GroupM and Visible World to successfully deliver
five different TV spots, in the same 30-second ad
break across 25 cable networks, on behalf of unspecified brands in the fourth quarter of 2010.
According to Invidi’s lawsuit, Cablevision and Visible
World infringe the Invidi-owned U.S. Patent No.
5,661,516 titled “System and Method for Selectively
Distributing Commercial Messages over a Communications
Network,” covering household targeting and
addressing advertisements to a subscriber terminal
based on household data associated with the terminal.
Th e patent was issued Aug. 26, 1997.
In June 2010, Invidi announced it would seek to
license two other recently issued patents, which
are not at issue in the suit against Cablevision and
Visible World.
INVIDI INVESTORS
New York-based Invidi has received $111.5 million in
funding from investors including DirecTV, Google, WPP’s
GroupM, Motorola Ventures, Experian, NBC, Verizon
Communications and several venture-capital firms.
Invidi has struck long-term distribution agreements
to deploy its addressable-ad technology with DirecTV,
Dish Network and Verizon Communications.
