Latest from Next TV in Kudelski-group

Kudelski, Disney Strike Patent License Deal

Jeff Baumgartner — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 11:00:00 +0000

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.

Netflix, Kudelski Kiss And Make Up

Jeff Baumgartner — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:30:00 +0000

The Kudelski Group and Netflix have been at each other’s throats in the courts on both sides of the Atlantic, but the two sides have found common ground in the form of new business deals.

The companies said they have agreed to dismiss all pending patent litigation in the U.S. and have secured a long term stay of pending Dutch patent litigation after striking a new deal that will bake some of Kudelski’s video protection technology into Netflix’s streaming SVOD service.

Under the deal, Kudelski will preintegrate its NAGRA anyCAST content protection and OpenTV “connectware” (an OS for set-tops and gateways) with the Netflix platform. The agreements remove a legal overhang for Netflix, which continues to grow in the U.S. and expand its OTT video service internationally.

OpenTV filed a lawsuit against Netflix in 2012 alleging that Netflix was infringing on seven of its U.S. patents, claiming that it was unable to negotiation a business deal for its portfolio of intellectual property tied to Internet video delivery.

In December, a court in the Netherlands rejected an Open TV patent suit against Netflix, and ordered Open TV to pay legal costs for €234,475 (US$ 276,329), according to Broadband TV News. The Dutch court was still considering a second case that OpenTV brought against Netflix.

Kudelski Sheds NagraID Security Unit

Jeff Baumgartner — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 11:45:00 +0000

Kudelski Group said it has inked a deal to sell its NagraID Security unit to Oberthur Technologies (OT), a digital security solutions company focused on the mobile sector.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal calls for OT to acquire Kudelski’s 100% equity stake of NagraID Security as well as the unit’s management.

NagraID Security develops and markets powered display cards to secure access to the cloud, and is primarily focused on companies and partners that operate in the field of financial payments, authentication and identification solutions, and the use of one-time passwords or dynamic card verification value (the three- or four-digit security code printed in payment cards) technologies.

“The earn-out-based structure of the sales agreement allows Kudelski Group to share the upside of the display card market, while relying on a strong industrial partner. We think Oberthur Technologies is well-placed to lead NagraID Security and are pleased for the NagraID Security team,” André Kudelski, president and CEO of the Kudelski Group, said in a statement.

Kudelski Group and OT expect to close the deal “in the coming weeks.”

OpenTV, Nagravision Sue Apple

Jeff Baumgartner — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 19:45:00 +0000

OpenTV and Nagravision, units of the Kudelski Group, have filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the maker of the iPad and Apple TV is infringing on five U.S. patents.

The suit, filed Wednesday with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, claims that several Apple products are infringing, including its iOS-powered iPhones, iPads and iPods, the Apple TV, the Apple App Store and iTunes, iADs service, Safari browser, and OS X-based computers.

The five patents asserted by the Nagravision/OpenTV-led suit are:

-No: 5,689,799: “Method and apparatus for routing confidential information;”

-No. 5,884,033: “Internet filtering system for filtering data transferred over the internet utilizing immediate and deferred filtering actions;”

-No. 5,566,287: “Method for asynchronously maintaining an image on a display device;”

-No. 6,985,586: “Distributed information storage system;” and,

-No. 7,900,229: “Convergence of interactive television wireless technologies.”

Nagravision, a maker of security and digital rights management products and technologies, and OpenTV, a unit that specializes in video apps, advanced advertising systems and set-top middleware, are seeking a permanent injunction, attorneys fees, and unspecified financial damages that are “in no event less than a reasonable royalty.”

Apple was not immediately available for comment.

OpenTV, acquired in full by Kudelski in 2010, filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Netflix in 2012, alleging that Netflix infringes seven U.S. patents owned by OpenTV that cover Internet video delivery.