SeaChange, nCUBE Head for Trial
SeaChange International Inc. and nCUBE Corp.will take their patent-infringement battle to the courtroom in September.
SeaChange filed a patent-infringement action in mid-June in Delaware District Court, charging that nCUBE had infringed on its "MediaCluster" patent, which SeaChange described as "the foundation for a number of SeaChange digital-video-server systems."
During a July 27 hearing, the Delaware court offered the parties two options. One was to await a ruling, which could take several months. The second was to agree to a very early jury trial on all issues in the case.
The court ultimately set a Sept. 18 jury date.
Both companies expressed confidence in the facts of their respective positions.
A SeaChange spokesman said SeaChange filed for the Media-Cluster patent in 1995 and began deploying that equipment in 1997. The patent came through last year.
SeaChange had sought a preliminary injunction to immediately halt nCUBE's distribution and development of "Media-Cube4." The company said last week that the accelerated trial schedule rendered that motion unnecessary.
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SeaChange also said, "Attempts to otherwise explore the matter" with nCUBE had failed.
Meanwhile, nCUBE said it was pleased that no injunction was issued and by the expedited trial date.