Verizon Settles with TiVo and ActiveVideo, Agrees to Pay $510 Million

By Rob Scott
September 25, 2012

“Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to pay more than $510 million to end patent-infringement suits filed by TiVo Inc. and ActiveVideo Networks Inc. that targeted features of its FiOS TV service,” according to Bloomberg.
Verizon is expected to pay TiVo at least $250 million to end the dispute over DVR services. The New York-based company will also pay CloudTV developer ActiveVideo more than $260 million over the VOD feature.
As part of the agreement, Verizon will also pay license fees for “every Verizon DVR subscriber beyond a predetermined level.”
The trial was scheduled to start in a Texas federal court next week. TiVo was claiming three patent infringements, including one involving the time warp system that was the basis for the legal battle with Dish, settled last year.
Had TiVo won the case, Verizon could have been forced to remove DVR service from FiOS TV (Dish had been ordered to remove the function prior to its settlement).
“[Verizon] reported having 4.5 million FiOS Video connections at the end of the second quarter,” notes the article. “The wireline division, which includes the FiOS TV, phone and Internet services, generated $40.7 billion in sales last year and FiOS accounted for 65 percent of that division’s profit.”

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