Patent Office Validates Many Claims in Widevine Patent and Court’s Initial Ruling in Verimatrix Patent Case Favors Widevine

Widevine Technologies, a leading provider of multiplatform, multiformat DRM and video optimization solutions, today announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has reconfirmed the validity of many claims of Widevine’s U.S. Patent No. 7,165,175. Verimatrix had previously asked the USPTO to reexamine that patent based on additional prior art. The USPTO issued a ruling last week confirming that twenty-two claims of that patent remain valid. It is continuing to consider other claims.

Widevine further announced that the district court has denied Verimatrix’s motion to stay litigation. The patent lawsuit asserts Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) willfully infringes on Widevine Cypher® technology for content protection. Verimatrix had filed a motion to stay litigation while the reexamination was pending. In denying Verimatrix’s attempt to stall the lawsuit the court considered the competing interests and concluded “that the interest in proceeding with the current litigation outweighs any benefits from staying the litigation.”

"We are pleased that the USPTO has reaffirmed the validity of many of Widevine’s key claims that we are asserting in litigation. Our unique IP portfolio provides a sustainable competitive advantage for Widevine to secure multimedia content delivery,” said Mani Aliabadi, General Counsel for Widevine. “The court understands that delaying this lawsuit will result in continued uncertainty for Verimatrix’s customers and resellers. It is to the benefit of all conditional access providers and their customers that this case is resolved as soon as possible.”

Widevine has important intellectual property in the field of content protection with a robust patent portfolio of over 55 issued patents and numerous domestic and international patents pending.