The Kudelski Group and Netflix have been at each other’s throats in the courts on both sides of the Atlantic, but the two sides have found common ground in the form of new business deals.
The companies said they have agreed to dismiss all pending patent litigation in the U.S. and have secured a long term stay of pending Dutch patent litigation after striking a new deal that will bake some of Kudelski’s video protection technology into Netflix’s streaming SVOD service.
Under the deal, Kudelski will preintegrate its NAGRA anyCAST content protection and OpenTV “connectware” (an OS for set-tops and gateways) with the Netflix platform. The agreements remove a legal overhang for Netflix, which continues to grow in the U.S. and expand its OTT video service internationally.
OpenTV filed a lawsuit against Netflix in 2012 alleging that Netflix was infringing on seven of its U.S. patents, claiming that it was unable to negotiation a business deal for its portfolio of intellectual property tied to Internet video delivery.
In December, a court in the Netherlands rejected an Open TV patent suit against Netflix, and ordered Open TV to pay legal costs for €234,475 (US$ 276,329), according to Broadband TV News. The Dutch court was still considering a second case that OpenTV brought against Netflix.
