Context: On November 7, publicy-traded U.S. patent licensing firm Adeia announced enforcement actions against Disney and its Hulu and ESPN subsidiaries, including “one lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and three lawsuits in Europe, including two in the Unified Patent Court [UPC] and one in Germany.”
What’s new: One of the two UPC lawsuits has now surfaced in the public case register. Adeia Guides Inc. is asserting EP1969839 (“An interactive media guidance system having multiple devices”) against three Disney entities in the Hague Local Division (LD).
Direct impact: Adeia is seeking a permament injunction in the U.S. as well, but the specter of a multi-country UPC injunction is likely to up settlement pressure on Disney.
Wider ramifications: Earlier this month, ip fray already identified a filing trend. In the UPC’s second year of operation (which started on June 1, 2024), The Hague Local Division is experiencing the highest growth rate over the first year (November 5, 2024 ip fray article).
1. U.S. complaint
In the District of Delaware, Adeia is asserting the following patents:
- U.S. Patent No. 9,762,639 (“Dynamic manifest generation based on client identity”)
- U.S. Patent No. 8,280,987 (“Cloud data persistence engine”)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,860,595 (“Systems and methods for episode tracking in an interactive media environment”)
- U.S. Patent No. 10,165,324 (“Systems and methods for episode tracking in an interactive media environment”)
- U.S. Patent No. 8,542,705 (“Key frame detection and synchronization”) (the infringement allegations relating to this patent make reference to the MPEG-DASH standard (ISO/IEC 23009-1:2019))
- U.S. Patent No. 9,235,428 (“User interface method and system for application programs implemented with component architectures”)
In its U.S. complaint, Adeia describes as its “predecessor companies” (who assigned various patents to Adeia) “United Video, Gemstar, TiVo, Macrovision, Rovi, and MobiTV, to name but a few.”
Adeia also names various licensees in the complaint: “top U.S. pay-TV providers (e.g., AT&T, Verizon, Cox Communications, Comcast, DirecTV, DISH, Spectrum, Frontier) … streaming giants such as Google (YouTube, Google TV) and Paramount (Paramount+, Pluto TV) … hardware manufacturers such as Sony, TCL, Roku, and Samsung.”
Pressure is generally increasing on streaming companies to take patent licenses (standard-essential patents (SEPs) as well as non-SEPs). Some patent holders and pool administrators have historically had reasons for leaving the streamers alone, but as more and more patent holders are looking to get paid, there won’t be many patentees left in a few years who would elect to forgo those licensing revenues for other strategic considerations.
This is the U.S. complaint:
2. UPC and German cases
The other UPC lawsuit will presumably show up pretty soon, too, and when all defendants have been served, it will be possible to obtain details on the German national court case (presumably filed in Munich) from the court.
While the Delaware case will take a couple of years to trial, the UPC’s The Hague LD will presumably hold the two Adeia v. Disney trials in 2025, and possibly even render judgment before the end of next year. The schedule in German national court would likely be similar to the UPC, or at least far closer to UPC than U.S. timelines.
The UPC panel in The Hague that will hear the already-discovered case consists of Presiding Judge Edger Brinkman, Judge Margot Kokke and Judge Mélanie Bessaud (Paris). A Technically Qualified Judge may be appointed, too.
Adeia’s lead counsel (and presumably also in German national court) is Bardehle Pagenberg’s Professor Tilman Mueller-Stoy (“Müller-Stoy” in German).