Coming off a recent win at the U.S. International Trade Commission, TiVo said it has filed additional lawsuits against Comcast that target an array of features and capabilities offered on the MSO’s X1 platform.
The new round of suits, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, allege that Comcast’s X1 platform infringes on patents involving features that include pausing and resuming shows on different devices, restarting live programming in progress, advanced DVR recording features, and advanced search & voice functionality.
“The patents involved in the new complaints represent a very small component of Rovi’s worldwide patent portfolio,” TiVo said.
TiVo has been asked to elaborate on the patents involved in the latest round of lawsuits. Comcast has been asked for comment.
The new lawsuits come after TiVo won a round against Comcast at the ITC, which, in November, issued a limited exclusion order prohibiting importation of certain DVR and hardware and software. The ITC’s final ruling (currently in a 60-day Presidential review period) followed an initial determination last May finding that various respondents, including Comcast, had violated two TiVo patents – No. 8,006,263 and 8,578,413 that describe “Interactive Television Program Guide with Remote Access,” while four other patents asserted by TiVo/Rovi in the case “were found to have no violation at this point.”
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At the time, Comcast said it disagreed with the ITC’s decision and that in would pursue an appeal. In the meantime, Comcast has disabled a feature from its Stream app for mobile devices and web browsers that enables customers to schedule DVR recordings remotely.
TiVo/Rovi also said it plans to file additional legal action with the ITC regarding the same patents asserted in the latest lawsuits, and will likewise be seeking an exclusion order preventing alleged infringing X1 set-top boxes from continuing to be imported into the United States.
“Our goal is for Comcast to renew its long-standing license so it can continue providing its customers the many popular features Rovi invented,” Enrique Rodriguez, TiVo’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
In an interview in Las Vegas at CES earlier this week, Rodriguez, who took the helm of TiVo last November, noted that nine of the top ten service providers have signed new license agreements with TiVo, which merged with Rovi in the fall of 2016. Comcast, of course, is the standout.
“My goal is to have the right relationship with Comcast,” Rodriguez said, noting that litigation is not a great use of company resources and is considered a “last resort.”
