BOSTON—Access Advance has announced that HEVC Advance Patent Pool Licensors have filed patent infringement proceedings against Roku for infringing patents essential to the HEVC/H.265 digital video coding standard (HEVC). 

According to the complaints, Roku offers video streaming devices which incorporate HEVC technology. 

Advance said that despite its long-term efforts to resolve patent infringements in good faith, Roku remained unwilling to voluntarily legalize its sales of HEVC capable products. In response, Advance Licensors filed suits that seek past royalties from Roku and an injunction against continuing infringement.

This news follows actions taken earlier this year in which Advance Licensors filed patent infringement proceedings against HP Inc. and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. for also infringing patents essential to the HEVC digital video coding standard.

The HEVC Advance Patent Pool allows companies to license patents essential to the HEVC Standard, including HEVC decoders and HEVC encoders for streaming on mobile and other connected devices, 4K televisions, and digital storage devices. 

Beginning in 2015, the pool has grown to 43 Licensors and over 23,000 patents, representing approximately 75-80% of all available HEVC-essential patents. The pool has attracted over 320 Licensees, including Dell, Google, LG, Microsoft, OPPO, Huawei, Panasonic, Sony, and Lenovo.

Access Advance LLC is an independent licensing administrator company formed to lead the development, administration, and management of patent pools for licensing essential patents of the most important standards-based video codec technologies. 

Less than two weeks after a jury in Utah ordered Dish Network to pay $469 million in damages after Clearplay sued the satellite TV provider for patent violations over its Autohop feature, a Utah federal judge has thrown out the verdict.

In the original case, filed in 2014, ClearPlay, a developer of parental control technology, accused Dish of infringing on two of its patented technologies that allow subscribers to skip over commercials, which it had been offering to subscribers since 2012. Earlier this month, a jury in federal court found in favor of ClearPlay, but also found that Dish did not purposely violate the patent.

Dish appealed the verdict, saying that ClearPlay did not provide enough evidence that Dish had willingly violated the patent.  

After the verdict was overturned, Dish issued the following statement:

"Earlier today, the judge in the ClearPlay v. Dish Network case ruled orally that he will grant Dish’s Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law. The ruling (sometimes called a directed verdict) means that the Court determined that ClearPlay failed to put on sufficient evidence to support the conclusion that Dish infringed the asserted patent claims. As a result, the jury's March 10, 2023 verdict and damages award are moot. Dish has stood firm in its belief that it did not infringe ClearPlay’s patents, and is gratified by the Court’s ruling."

ClearPlay has yet to comment on the decision.

LOS GATOS, Calif.—Roku is heading from one court case to another. After being cleared last week of a patent infringement claim, Roku is now going after Universal Electronics for its violation of Roku's patents related to the set-up of infrared remote controls.

First, last Friday Roku was cleared by a Western District of Texas jury on charges of patent infringement by ESW Holdings. ESW argued that Roku's "development environment," which allows third-party developers to create streaming channels and advertisements to make available on Roku's own streaming platform, was in violation of its two patents that deal with interactive television technology.

ESW was asking for damages that could have been as high as $228 million.

Roku pointed to witness testimony from employees of the startup that developed the ESW technology that said they did not believe Roku infringed on the patents, including the inventor of the patents, who explicitly said that Roku was not infringing.

Law 360 has a full recap of the trial proceedings.

Meanwhile, Roku is possibly heading back to court, this time as the one claiming patent infringement against Universal Electronics, as TV Tech's sister publication Next|TV reports. Roku filed the suit in a California federal court, alleging violations of its U.S. Patent No. 8,378,875, "Method of Programming a Universal Remote Control," and No. 7,388,511, "System for Remote Control of Identical Devices."

Roku claims Universal Electronics has infringed by including "QuickSet" and "SimpleSet" features in programmable remotes for pay-TV operators like Charter Communications, WideOpenWest and Videotron, as well as smart TV manufacturers Samsung, LG Electronics and Zenith.

In 2020, Universal Electronics filed suit against Roku, alleging that its remotes for TCL and Hisense remotes violated its patents.

RASTATT, Germany—Following Evertz filing a lawsuit on seven instances of patent infringement against it, Lawo has come out with a statement “strongly denying” the accusations, saying that the allegedly infringed patents “are invalid.”

On Monday, March 18, Evertz filed its lawsuit against Lawo AG, Lawo Inc. and Lawo North America Corp in the Federal District Court for the District of Delaware. The lawsuits alleges infringement on Evertz’s IP-based video routing and switching technology.

Evertz had previously filed litigation against Lawo and former Evertz employees in the Superior Court of Ontario. However, Lawo asserts in its response that Evertz failed to state in its press release that the Canadian action was struck down by the court in February because “Evertz failed to articulate a material basis for its claim.”

“This press release is part of a global public relations campaign, which obviously goes beyond the mere protection of Evertz’s alleged rights in court,” reads Lawo’s statement.

“We will vigorously defend the lawsuits and will pursue all appropriate legal actions against Evertz,” said Claudia Nowak, CFO of Lawo in the statement. “Business will continue as usual and there should not be any impact on our customers while these matters are pending.”