OpenTV sues Netflix over DRM, recommendation patents
updated 11:05 pm EST, Wed December 19, 2012
Swiss company licensing efforts with Netflix fail
Patent holder OpenTV has launched a lawsuit against Netflix on Wednesday, claiming the company is misusing its patents on viewer recommendations, digital rights management and video playback. The owners of OpenTV, Kudelski SA, have been attempting to negotiate licenses for the patents in question for a year, but Netflix has signed no agreement with the Swiss company.
"Companies like Netflix have, in essence, stood on the shoulders of giants, largely focusing their R&D efforts on aggregating these previously patented technologies and using them to provide a rich customer experience," Kudelski said in the court filing.
OpenTV began as a cooperative effort between Thomson Multimedia and Sun Microsystems, and is responsible for the software in more than 200 million set-top boxes. Ex-Intellectual Ventures employee Joe Chernesky was brought on to help manage the company's patent assets "We have been developing technologies for over 20 years to enable the delivery of video content and have an early and broad patent portfolio in the field," said on behalf of OpenTV. "We intend to aggressively defend our patents."
