A company that considers itself to be one of the pioneers of video-on-demand technology in December 2019 filed a patent infringement actions against AT&T, DirecTV and Dish Network — actions that involves four patents covering streaming media innovations specifically tied to VOD services using the set top box and mobile app technology.
Now, this same company has taken a similar action against Amazon.
Hawaii-based Broadband iTV on Tuesday (10/6) confirmed that it has filed a patent infringement action against Amazon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
The lawsuit involves six BBiTV patents covering innovations in VOD — specifically related to VOD services using set top box and mobile app technologies. It addresses Amazon’s infringement of the patents based upon various aspects of Amazon’s Prime Video platform.
It’s the latest court fight for BBiTV, which 10 months ago filed individual patent infringement suits against AT&T, DirecTV and Dish Network.
BBiTV developed and owns a portfolio of more than 70 issued patents. The patents are comprised of technologies developed by BBiTV inventor and Chief Technology Officer Milton Diaz (pictured) based on his work over several decades.
BBiTV developed the underlying technology that all of its patents were derived from, and BBiTV, says its attorneys at Feinberg Day Kramer Alberti Lim Tonkovich & Belloli LLP, has not acquired any of its patents from third parties.
Amazon, it claims, infringe on these patents.
“BBiTV is a pioneer in VOD technology and services as we know it,” said Rob Kramer, a partner, Feinberg Day Kramer. “These patents are the culmination of a lifetime of hard work and passion for innovation. BBiTV will vigorously defend its intellectual property against Amazon as it is against AT&T, DirecTV, and Dish Network.”
Before joining BBiTV, Diaz was known for his tenure from 1998-2002 as SVP/Engineering and Network at the former StarMedia Network, at the time the top operator of community and portal websites in Latin America.
BBiTV’s litigious history dates to 2014, when it filed cases against Hawaiian Telecom and Oceanic Time Warner Cable. In 2015, new litigation against Hawaiian Telecom was filed, this time in Pennsylvania Eastern District Court. This went to a Federal Appeals Court, which in September 2016 upheld a ruling found in favor of Hawaiian Telecom.
BBiTV in April 2017 then took its Hawaiian Telecom case to the Supreme Court. A month later, the justices declined to hear the case.
— Reporting by Adam Jacobson, with additional reporting by Ethan Hunt in Haiku, Hawaii.
