Andre Yoskowitz
31 Jul 2011 2:53
Rovi, the interactive programing guide vendor has sued Hulu this week, over alleged patent violations.
The three patents are US Patent #6,396,546, US Patent #7,103,906 and US Patent #7,769,775 and each relates to, unsurprisingly, online TV program guides and search products.
Rovi is seeking monetary damages and attorney fees in the case.
In 2010, the company sued Toshiba over similar patents, and in the end, Toshiba agreed to license the products and will use Rovi's TotalGuide interactive guide in upcoming TVs.
No stranger to litigation, Rovi tried a similar case against Virgin Media in 2008 and despite winning the case in 2011, the patents were ruled invalid and stripped from their inventory.
Additionally, the company formerly known as Macrovision is in a current suit with IMDB (and parent Amazon) over 5 patents relating to program guides.