Rovi Sues Hulu Over Patents

29 Jul, 2011 By: Chris Tribbey

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Rovi Corp. has taken Hulu to court, with Rovi claiming the online TV portal is infringing on its patents.

According to court documents filed July 28 in U.S. District Court in Delaware, in 2008 Rovi, which at the time was called Macrovision, initiated discussions with Hulu regarding program guide, search engine, and multidevice on-demand technologies. Though the two companies did not reach an agreement, Rovi contends that Hulu and Hulu Plus both use Rovi’s technologies, infringing on three patents.

The suit seeks unspecified damages.

In 2010 Rovi filed a similar suit against Toshiba, claiming the Japanese consumer electronics company infringed on its patents, using Rovi technology on its HDTVs. That case was settled when Toshiba agreed to license Rovi technology and use Rovi’s TotalGuide interactive programming guide in its HDTVs.

Rovi is also currently in court with Amazon and IMDb.com regarding several patents.

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