MULTIPLE CITIES: Verizon has settled two separate patent lawsuits for payouts totaling $510 million. Licensing litigation with TiVo has ended with a mutual patent licensing arrangement, plus Verizon paying TiVo compensation of $250.4 million. Separately, Verizon agreed to pay a reported $260 million to ActiveVideo Networks, the developer of CloudTV based in San Jose, Calif. The two companies struck a cross-licensing pact and agreed not to sue one another for a period of years, RTT News said.
TiVo, the digital video recording firm based in Alviso, Calif., announced the settlement today. The agreement calls for an initial payment of $100 million, then quarterly payments of the balance through July 2018. If the companies pursue certain commercial initiatives before Dec. 21, 2012, up to $29.4 million of the payments could be credited. Verizon will also pay additional monthly license fees through July 2018 for each Verizon DVR subscriber in excess of certain pre-determined levels. Verizon and TiVo are also discussing how to make Redbox content available through TiVo.
The two companies agreed to dismiss all pending litigation with prejudice, and entered into cross-licensing of their respective advanced TV patent portfolios.
ActiveVideo sued Verizon in May, 2010, alleging that Verizon’s FiOS TV infringed on four of its patents. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in August that Verizon was liable for damages of at least $260 million, B&C reports. TiVo sued Verizon and AT&T in 2009 over patent claims. AT&T settled in January, agreeing to pay TiVo $215 million and enter into a cross-licensing deal. TiVo similarly won $600 million in patent disputes with Dish Network and EchoStar last year.
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