AT&T settles TiVo patent suit for at least $215 million

AT&T will pay TiVo at least US$215 million to settle pending patent litigation relating to digital video recorder technology.

TiVo in Alviso, California filed in August, 2009 a patent infringement complaint against AT&T in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall division, in which it stated that AT&T infringed three of its patents, including U.S. Patent No. 6,233,389, entitled "Multimedia time warping system".

The settlement comes a few months after TiVo settled with Dish Network and EchoStar in a similar case that involved TiVo's time warp technology which allows the user to store selected television broadcast programs while simultaneously watching or reviewing another program.

Under the terms of the settlement announced Tuesday by TiVo, AT&T has agreed to pay TiVo an initial payment of $51 million, followed by recurring quarterly guaranteed payments through June 2018, totaling $164 million, which together will yield a minimum of $215 million.

AT&T will in addition pay incremental recurring per subscriber monthly license fees through July, 2018 should AT&T's DVR subscriber base exceed certain levels, TiVo said.

AT&T could not be immediately reached for comment.

As part of the settlement, TiVo and AT&T have agreed to dismiss all pending litigation between the companies with prejudice. The parties also entered into a cross license of their respective patent portfolios in "the advanced television field", TiVo said.

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