A spokesperson for Sen. Thom Tillis signaled to Next TV late Monday that he will do his best to keep Democratic nominee Gigi Sohn off the Federal Communications Commission.

Also: Gigi Sohn‘s FCC Nomination Could Face Hold Threats

“Senator Tillis is going to do everything he can to stop Gigi Sohn’s confirmation, including putting a hold,” Tillis’s communications director, Adam Webb, said in an email.

Late last month, Tillis (R-N.C.), ranking member on the Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee, asked President Joe Biden to withdraw Sohn's nomination, saying he had many concerns but copyright was chief among them.

Webb did say why the hold was being placed. In asking the president to withdraw her nomination, Tillis pointed to her “history as an anti-copyright activist” — including her support for TV signal streamer Locast, which a court said was not eligible for the copyright exemption it asserted. But he is also an opponent of Title II-based net neutrality rules and a source familiar with both issues said that Title II support was also a big factor.

In his letter to the president opposing Sohn, Tillis echoed broadcasters' concerns about Sohn's directorship role at TV station signal streamer Locast, whose business model of nonprofit streaming without paying a fee to content providers a court ruled violated copyright protections. “In Ms. Sohn’s current position at Georgetown's Institute for Technology and Law Policy,” he said, “she condemned media companies for trying to protect their content from unauthorized streaming from Locast.”

Sohn pointed out at her hearing that Locast was shuttered, its assets being sold, and would likely be history by year's end.

Tillis also complained about Sohn's role as advisor to then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, whom she advised to open up cable set-top boxes “in ways that would guarantee a surge in piracy,” the senator said.

Wheeler did tee up an open set-top box proposal in 2016, but failed to secure the necessary three Democratic votes, in part because then commissioner Jessica Rosenworce, now acting chair, did not agree with Wheeler’s approach.

Tillis said that as someone who believes in strong intellectual property protections, Sohn's record is disqualifying. ■

TiVo and its new parent company, Xperi Holdings, have renewed two more patents, inking intellectual property licensing extensions with U.K. telecom Vodafone and Korean consumer-electronics giant Sharp. 

Since TiVo settled its four-year IP battle with Comcast in November, the company has also struck deals with Cox Communications, TCL and Sony. 

Vodafone, which operates video services across Europe and parts of Africa, providing more than 22 million customers with TV/video, will continue to have access to TiVo products including content discovery, conversational voice and insight data analytics.  

“With this extension of TiVo’s services, Vodafone is maintaining its service offerings and keeping audiences engaged in the hugely competitive entertainment landscape,” Matt Milne, chief revenue officer for Xperi, said in a statement. 

Under its multiyear exemption, Sharp will use TiVo’s “G-Guide” products, including G-Guide HTML, G-Guide xD and remote schedule recording service, across compatible television and Ultra HD Blu-ray recorder products in the Japanese market. This includes the latest Aquos-branded 8K TVs.

Xperi, which controls more than 10,000 patents and patent applications, said during its third-quarter earnings call that it expects its IP licensing business to generate around $350 million in revenue in 2021. 

Xperi reports fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 23.

Comcast has filed a motion at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as it looks to expedite the briefing and hearing schedule for an appeal of its case at the International Trade Commission.

In November, the ITC issued a limited exclusion order prohibiting importation of certain DVR and hardware and software. That followed an initial determination last May finding that various respondents, including Comcast, had violated two TiVo patents – No. 8,006,263 and 8,578,413 -- that describe “Interactive Television Program Guide with Remote Access,” while four other patents asserted by TiVo/Rovi in the case “were found to have no violation at this point.”

RELATED: TiVo Notches Win in ITC Patent Battle with Comcast

As Comcast seeks its appeal of the ITC decision, the operator has disabled a feature from its Stream appfor mobile devices and web browsers that enables customers to schedule DVR recordings remotely.

Comcast said the filing of the new motion is a procedural step. CableFAX reported that Comcast is arguing that the ITC overstepped its authority with the ruling handed down late last year.

It’s not clear how much Comcast’s motion, if granted, will expedite the appeal (a decision on whether to grant it might be made before the end of February). Typically, it might take the Federal Circuit about a year to reach a decision. Without an accelerated briefing schedule, the hearing on Comcast’s appeal might get under way this fall. With it, it might get moved up to June or July, a personal familiar with the situation said.

RELATED: TiVo Notches Win in ITC Patent Battle with Comcast

In the meantime, TiVo, which merged with Rovi Corp. in the fall of 2016, has recently filed a companion to the ITC case that involves the same eight patents that are being asserted in a new round of litigation filed in district courts in California and Massachusetts. Those patents describe features such as pausing and resuming shows on different devices and some advanced search and voice functionality.

RELATED: TiVo Hits Comcast With More Lawsuits Targeting X1

That move essentially enables TiVo to put in parallel the patents and intellectual property it’s asserting in the district courts, where it would be seeking monetary damages, as well as with the proceedings at the ITC, which is instead focused on remedies that usually involve exclusion orders that would prevent infringing products from being imported to the U.S.

It’s expected that the cases at the district courts will get stayed until the appeals at the ITC get played out.

And there’s still no telling how long all of this will play out, as both sides have shown no signs of budging.

People familiar with the situation believe that Comcast will hold firm and fight it out in the courts rather than sign a deal, and that TiVo will continue to keep the pressure on Comcast with multiple lawsuits in the absence of a new licensing agreement.

TiVo has argued that the patents in the new complaints represent a “very small” part of its portfolio. At CES in January, recently named TiVo CEO Enrique Rodriguez said the goal is to “have the right relationship with Comcast” and that litigation is considered a “last resort.”

Comcast has been countering that TiVo’s patents have aged and are “increasingly obsolete” and that Comcast’s own engineers independently created X1 products and services.

TiVo said it has expanded its multi-year patent license agreement with Google that includes YouTube TV, the OTT TV service launched last April.

RELATED: YouTube TV Tunes in 35 More Markets

Financial terms were not announced, but TiVo said the agreement covers Google’s use of TiVo’s patented technologies worldwide, and offers a license for Google’s products and services across internet-based platforms and devices.

TiVo, meanwhile, continues to battle with Comcast in the courts. 

Last week, Rovi Corp, a unit of TiVo, filed two lawsuits against Comcast that take aim at the features and capabilities offered on the MSO’s X1 platform, and assert a total of eight patents.

RELATED: TiVo Notches Win in ITC Patent Battle with Comcast

Comcast countered that X1 was developed independently by its own engineers, arguing that Rovi’s is attempting to extract “unfounded payments for its aging and increasingly obsolete patent portfolio…”

Sprint is targeting Mediacom Communications in a lawsuit alleging that the cable operator has violated 13 Sprint patents tied to VoIP services, the Kansas City Business Journal reported.

Mediacom declined to comment on the suit, as it’s still reviewing the claim. Sprint filed the suit in a federal court in Delaware last Friday (December 1), the paper said, noting that Sprint is seeking damages yet to be determined along with a permanent injunction.

Sprint has had some success going after cable operators with patent suits. In October, Comcast disclosed in a 10-Q filing that it had paid $250 million to Sprint to settle a lawsuit stemming from claims that the MSO’s digital voice service was infringing on several Sprint patents.

RELATED: Comcast Settles Sprint Patent Spat

Time Warner Cable (now part of Charter Communications) lost its case with Sprint in a judgement handed down earlier this year. Sprint’s suit against Cable One was dismissed by the court in November 2016, according to court documents.

RELATED: Sprint Sues Comcast, TWC, Cox And Cable One Over VoIP Patents

TiVo shares rose more than 10% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the International Trade Commission handed down a final ruling finding that Comcast had violated two TiVo patents.

According to the notice posted today, the ITC, following its investigation, has issued a “limited exclusion order prohibiting the importation of certain digital video receivers and hardware and software components” and had “issued cease and desist orders…directed to the Comcast respondents. The investigation is terminated.”

In addition to Comcast, other respondents in the ITC case include set-top suppliers such as Technicolor, Arris and Pace Ltd. (Arris acquired U.K.-based Pace in January 2016). 

“Rovi is pleased the International Trade Commission issued its final ruling in our favor and found that two Rovi patents are valid and infringed by Comcast’s X1 products, and issued an exclusion order that bans Comcast from importing and selling X1 devices that infringe our valuable intellectual property,” Rovi, a TiVo company, said in a statement. “Today’s Commission Opinion reinforces the need for Comcast to take the necessary licenses to our IP.”

TiVo and Rovi completed their merger last fall. Though TiVo/Rovi has recently renewed and/or extended patent and licensing deals with several other major MVPDs, including AT&T of late, it and Comcast have not yet come to terms on a new agreement. The ITC ruling could hasten a new deal between TiVo and Comcast. 

Update: Comcast issued this statement:“We respectfully disagree with the ITC’s decision in this matter. In fact, Rovi has never disputed that Comcast or its predecessors independently developed our X1 platform and our cloud- and app-based technology. While we believe the ITC reached the wrong decision, we will remove this feature from those offered to our subscribers while we pursue an appeal.”

The feature Comcast is referring to is functionality that lets video customers schedule DVR recordings remotely from mobile devices that they would watch later via the set-top box. 

Comcast also has deals in place to license/syndicate its X1 platform to other MSOs, including Cox Communications (it inked a multi-year intellectual agreement with Rovi in 2010)  and three based in Canada (Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications, and Videotron), which seemingly would have no bearing as this is a U.S.-focused case). Shaw is already facing a legal challenge from Nagra and OpenTV over the MSO's BlueSky TV service, which leans on Shaw's X1 syndication deal with Comcast. 

The ITC’s final ruling follows an initial determination in May finding that various respondents, including Comcast, had violated two TiVo patents – No. 8,006,263 and 8,578,413 that describe “Interactive Television Program Guide with Remote Access”– and that other four patents asserted by TiVo/Rovi in the case “were found to have no violation at this point.”

RELATED: TiVo Shares Soar on Prelim ITC Ruling Against Comcast“Having examined the record in this investigation, the Commission has determined to affirm the Final ID’s conclusion that Comcast has violated section 337 in connection with the asserted claims of the ’263 and ’413 patents,” the ITC said in the notice issued today. “More particularly, the Commission affirms the Final ID’s determination that Comcast imports the accused X1 set-top boxes (“STBs”), and takes no position as to whether Comcast is an importer of the Legacy STBs. The Commission also takes no position on as to whether Comcast sells the accused products after importation.”

Regarding what’s next, the final ITC notice now heads to a 60-day Presidential period, where the exclusion order will be reviewed and a decision will be made as to whether there’s a public health policy reason to suspend it. That’s considered unlikely in this instance.

Comcast also has the option to appeal the notice to the federal circuit, though such action isn't expected to slow TiVo’s ability to stop infringing boxes from entering the U.S.

The ITC ruling doesn’t factor in any monetary damages. TiVo is seeking those in two separate court cases occurring in the Southern District of New York. One involves the same patents covered in the ITC case, which had been under a stay until the Commission determined a final ruling.

In 2016, prior to its merger with TiVo, Rovi filed a patent suit against Comcast in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, alleging that the cable operator, together with a handful of its set-top suppliers, including Arris/Pace, Technicolor and Humax, are infringing on 14 patents that, it claims, covers features such as remote recording and search for Comcast’s X1 platform.

TiVo said it has renewed and extended its products agreement with Liberty Global, the Denver-based operator that serves cable and broadband customers across Europe and in parts of Latin America.

Financial terms of the agreement weren’t announced, but the deal also includes a multi-year extension to an intellectual property for TiVo’s patent portfolios that covers all Liberty Global subsidiaries. That includes Virgin Media, the U.K.-based MSO that has been using TiVo’s software and services platform as the centerpiece of its flagship video products.

RELATED: Virgin Media Rejuvenates Video Platform

The deal salts away another important patent and IP deal for TiVo, which remains at odds with Comcast.

RELATED: TiVo Shares Soar on Prelim ITC Ruling Against Comcast

“We have a long-standing, wide-ranging relationship with Liberty Global around the world as a trusted technology supplier,” Tom Carson, TiVo’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Liberty Global’s expanded license helps them optimize entertainment experiences for their customers and underscores the value TiVo brings to modern TV and broadband leaders around the world.”

Ensuring that the two won’t be battling in the courts anytime soon, The Kudelski Group and Roku have struck a patent cross-license and technology collaboration agreement.

RELATED: OpenTV, Nagravision Sue Shaw, Target MSO's X1-Based TV Service

Financial terms weren’t announced, but the agreement gives each side the “freedom to operate with respect to the other’s patent portfolios,” Kudelski said.

The deal also factors in a framework for the companies to collaborate on incorporating Kudelski’s security solutions on Roku’s platforms.

RELATED: Kudelski Group and Turner sign patent license agreement

TiVo said it has extended its intellectual property and patent license with AT&T that will cover AT&T through 2025.

Finalization of the extension comes after the companies had announced a seven-year license renewal at the end of 2015.

The new agreement gives AT&T some important air cover on TiVo licenses that would be attributable to AT&T’s range of pay TV services, including U-verse, DirecTV (satellite) and the new OTT-delivered DirecTV Now offering.

For TiVo, which merged with Rovi last year, AT&T ensures that one of the nation’s largest MVPDs has secured key intellectual property license. The big overhang: Comcast, which still has not come to terms with TiVo on a new deal and the two remain locked in a court battle.  

RELATED: TiVo Shares Soar on Prelim ITC Ruling Against Comcast

“We are pleased that AT&T has extended its existing license agreement,” Tom Carson, TiVo’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “TiVo’s IP helps leading pay-TV providers deliver unique and personalized entertainment to consumers, now and well into the future.”

RELATED: TiVo President and CEO Thomas Carson to Retire

President Donald Trump Friday signaled his intention to nominate Vishal Amin to be the new Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at the White House.

Amin is currently senior counsel on the House Judiciary Committee under chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). Amin replaces Daniel Marti as coordinator.

Amin is also former associate director for domestic policy in the George W. Bush White House and was a special assistant at Commerce.

The White House IP czar post, which coordinates enforcement of intellectual property laws by various government agencies, was created by the Pro-IP Act.

The office is charged by Congress with protecting intellectual property and the rights of citizens, as well as with putting out three-year plans on how to do that, which are submitted to the House and Senate Judiciary and Appropriations Committees.

The most recent plan, issued under President Obama in December, was focused on large-scale infringement and piracy, rather than all instances where there might be infringement.

Recording Industry Association of America chairman Cary Sherman sounded pleased with the President's pick.

“The United States intellectual property industries are a vital economic engine for this country, contributing more than $1 trillion to the economy and hundreds of thousands of workers," Sherman said in a statement. "Music in particular is a cornerstone of modern culture and commerce, an essential component of any technology platform. The prompt appointment and consideration of this position is critical, and we commend President Trump for his choice. Vishal Amin is a smart, thoughtful leader and we look forward to working with him.”  

The Copyright Alliance, which represents content creators, has asked President Donald Trump to stand up for copyright protections here and abroad, pointing out he has a personal interest in that protection.

One sign that the President, whose own copyrights include NBC's The Apprentice, may already be listening was his reported selection of Maureen Ohlhausen as interim Federal Trade Commission chair. She said Monday that "anything we are doing that is devaluing intellectual property rights inappropriately...will actually hurt the U.S economy and innovation down the road."

In a letter to the president Monday (Jan. 23), the group pointed to Trump's own IP.

"Throughout the long history of our country, few, if any, presidents have had a more sizable and diverse copyright portfolio than you," the group wrote. "Your experiences as a businessman have afforded you insights into the value and importance of copyright and how copyright protections help drive the U.S. economy and create millions of well-paying jobs and small businesses."

It said that it's important for copyright owners to get free-market value for their work, free of undue government regulations, and in the limited cases where the government does deem it necessary to set royalties, that fair-market value still applies.

Trump ran on a platform of boosting U.S. companies and cutting regulations, so unless there is a populist hiccup in that trajectory, he should be on the same page as the Copyright Alliance.

Netflix and TiVo, which merged with Rovi in September, said they’ve inked a string of deals tied to licensing, intellectual property and products.

RELATED: TiVo CEO: Rovi Deal Not a Patent Play

Among them is a product partnership in which TiVo will continue to integrate Netflix into its set-tops boxes distributed at retail and through a growing group of MVPDs.

A separate intellectual property agreement provides Netflix a license to the TiVo patent portfolios and a license to the Intellectual Ventures patent portfolio for over-the-top services. They said the agreement represents one of the first licenses granted under an exclusive partnership that Rovi and Intellectual Ventures announced earlier this year.

Prior to merging with TiVo, Rovi and Netflix had been battling in the courts over patent claims.  Last year, a California court moved to invalidate five Rovi patents and entered a judgement in favor of Netflix in the case. At the time, Rovi said it intended to appeal.

“The partnership between Netflix and TiVo dates back to our early days of streaming video,”  Bill Holmes, Netflix global head of business development, said in a statement. “Building on this history, the agreements provide consumers freedom to watch their favorite TV shows and movies whenever and wherever, with an integrated experience across more devices.”

“Our agreements with Netflix represent a major milestone for TiVo as we expand our offerings for the fast-growing OTT space, and further demonstrates our commitment to delivering innovative technologies to new and emerging markets,” added TiVo CEO Tom Carson.  “From products to patented technologies, TiVo is helping companies quickly adapt to a rapidly changing media industry and create beautiful user experiences that keep consumers connected to their favorite entertainment.”

TiVo and Samsung have called a truce in the form of a long-term, worldwide intellectual property license that will provide certain rights under TiVo’s patent portfolio’s for Samsung’s mobile, consumer electronics and set-top box businesses.

Financial terms weren’t announced, but as part of the agreement, TiVo and Samsung said they will seek an immediate stay of all pending litigation and patent challenges between the two companies and will seek dismissal of all claims based on “satisfaction of certain conditions in Q2 2016,” they said.

The agreement comes more than a year after TiVo filed a patent infringement suit against Samsung in Texas that centered on four patents that had been litigated previously by TiVo. 

It also arrives less than two months after Rovi completed its merger with TiVo. The combined company, which kept the TiVo name, is expected to discuss the Samsung agreement in more detail today during its Q3 earnings call.

Update: Speaking on the call, TiVo CEO Tom Carson said the length of the deal is greater than five years, and that Samsung will pay for licenses for some previously sold set-top boxes and CE devices. 

RELATED: Rovi Seals Deal for TiVo

“TiVo is pleased we were able to reach the terms of an agreement with Samsung, one of the world’s most valued brands, and we look forward continuing to work with Samsung to advance the consumer entertainment experience,” Carson said, in a statement. “We believe this agreement with Samsung demonstrates the ongoing relevance of our intellectual property well into the future, as well as in key markets such as mobile. The arrangement also exemplifies the synergistic opportunities created by Rovi’s acquisition of TiVo to deliver significant value to our customers.”

TiVo said it has renewed its product and intellectual property licensing deal with Panasonic.

The deal, which follows the recent merger of TiVo and Rovi (the combined company is keeping the TiVo brand), includes a multi-year extension of its products for the Japan market, including G-Guide, G-Guide HTML and G-Guide xD, as well as a multi-year worldwide license renewal to Rovi’s entertainment discovery patent portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed.

RELATED: Rovi Seals Deal for TiVo

“Our continued collaboration with Panasonic further reinforces the need for technologies and solutions to power next-gen entertainment services while enhancing the overall user experience,”Michael Hawkey, senior vice president and general manager of user experience at TiVo, said in a statement. “Our innovative products help companies like Panasonic deliver seamless navigation experiences that help users find the content they want to watch no matter where they are or what device they are watching from.”

TiVo, which remains at odds with Comcast over licenses and patents, is scheduled to announce Q3 results on Thursday (Nov. 3).

Shares in TiVo were up almost 6% in after-hours trading Thursday after Rovi announced it had rescheduled its earnings call from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning.

Investors apparently believe that the delay could mean that TiVo and Rovi are close to tying the knot.  The New York Times reported last month that the companies were in “advanced negotiations” about a merger. Bloomberg reported on April 14 that Rovi and TiVo were quibbling over the longer-term value of their patent portfolios and other intellectual property, adding then that no deal was imminent  and that a proposed merger could still fall apart.

Rovi was originally scheduled to post Q1 earnings and hold a call with reporters an analyst Thursday afternoon; the call is now slated for Friday (April 29) at 8 a.m. ET.  Rovi did not announce a reason for the delay.

UpRamp, an accelerator initiative introduced by CableLabs in February that's billed as an “executive MBA for startups,” said it has opened the R&D organization’s patents to program participants.

“Every company that enters the Fiterator will be granted a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to all CableLabs patents, with annual mutual renewal option,” Scott Brown, managing director of UpRamp, and head of technology outreach at CableLabs, explained in this blog post.

CableLabs lists its granted patents here. Patents granted to CableLabs in 2016 include those describing a “Method and system of advertising;” “Offer Inclusion For Over The Top (OTT) Content;” and “Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Communication System.”

As noted on the UpRamp site, Fiterator is a next-gen startup accelerator in the form of a three-month, non-resident program that “combines C-level mentorship from the industry with over $120k in available financing.”

“Unlike traditional startup accelerators,” it adds, “the outcome of your time in the Fiterator is actual deals & references from Fortune 1000 customers.”

Providing access to CableLabs’s intellectual property, Brown wrote, “gives any graduate of the Fiterator ‘freedom to operate’ within the scope of these highly relevant technologies. It doesn’t give you the right to go out and act like a patent troll, but it does give you IP protections to operate within some of these interesting technology areas.”

Applications for UpRamp’s Fiterator program are open through May 13.

Rovi shares soared more than 15% Friday after the company posted Q4 results that beat analyst expectations.

Rovi, a key maker of interactive guide technology and a major supplier of metadata, pulled down  Q4 net income of $26.3 million (65 cents per share), on revenues of $149.5 million, up 11% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts were expecting earnings of 40 cents.

Rovi attributed the rise in revenue in part to catch-up payments from AT&T and Sony. Rovi posted service provider revenues of $124 million in Q4, up 18%.

On Thursday’s earnings call, Rovi CEO Tom Carson said the strong quarter was “led by licensing,” noting it had renewed its intellectual property deal with AT&T (which acquired DirecTV last year), Sky, Europe’s largest pay TV operator, and inked a new deal with Canadian operator Shaw Communications. The Shaw deal, he said, includes its new Free Range TV mobile video app, which is powered by Comcast’s X1 platform.

Rovi has also salted away a multi-year license with Charter Communications, which is in the process of acquiring Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

“Assuming the Time Warner Cable acquisition closes, we will have two of the big four U.S. service providers under new contracts,” Carson said.

Carson said Rovi is working to get renewals done with the other two – Comcast and Dish Network.

But it’s not counting those chickens yet. Rovi forecasted 2016 revenues of $490 million to $520 million, and earnings of $1.35 to $1.65 per share. “We are excluding any revenue associated with renewing these two deals from our estimates, including any advertising or TV Everywhere revenues from Comcast after Q1,” Carson said.

In addition to getting those renewals done, Rovi said another big focus this year involves Fan TV, the video navigation platform Rovi acquired in 2014for $12 million.

Though IP-connected Fan TV devices are no longer part of Rovi’s game plan (Time Warner Cable stopped selling those last fall), Rovi has since evolved Fan TV into a modular entertainment discovery platform for service providers and developers, offering it via APIs, apps and as an operating system for set-top boxes.

Carson said a “large European service provider agreed to use the Fan TV platform,” but won’t be saying more until after that customer announces their product and service plan that will rely on Fan TV.

Rovi said it expects to announce new deals for Fan TV, both as a full solution, and as an element that complements other discovery services during the course of the year.

The Kudelski Group said it has inked a multi-year patent license agreement with The Walt Disney Company that covers Kudelski’s patent portfolio, “subject to certain limitations.”

They did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.

"The Kudelski Group continues to invest heavily in developing technology and intellectual property that help enable industry leaders like The Walt Disney Company to deliver their popular, world-class video and entertainment platforms to the market through streaming video properties, such as ESPN.com and ABC.com,” said Joe Chernesky, Kudelski’s SVP of intellectual property and innovation, in a statement. “We’re very pleased to enter into this agreement with The Walt Disney Company, a market leader in video distribution. This agreement further underpins the relevance of our patent portfolio in an expanding technology footprint.”

Switzerland-based Kudelski Group said it holds more than 4,500 issued and pending patents worldwide.

Of recent note, Kudelski and Netflix announced in January that they had settled a patent-related dispute.