Forgent Networks has filed a lawsuit against 15 cable and satellite providers, accusing them of violating a patent involving digital video recording technology.
The case focuses on Patent # 6,285,746 that describes a video recording device that plays back video while it is being recorded. The feature is found on most of today’s digital video recorders. The defendants include Comcast, Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, CableOne, EchoStar and DirecTV.
Forgent, whose principle business is licensing of its technology portfolio, frequently uses the courts to secure royalty payments from technology businesses. It has enforced a graphics compression patent commonly used in the JPEG image format and so far has received about $100 million in fees from 35 different companies for the image patent.
The new case was filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
