TiVo and AT&T Enter Into a Patent Licensing Arrangement
AT&T will pay TiVo at least $215 million through June
2018, becoming the latest TV signal provider to settle
a patent lawsuit involving the digital video recorder
pioneer.
TiVo has settled its pending patent litigation with
AT&T and the companies have entered into a mutual
patent licensing arrangement. Under the terms of the
settlement, AT&T agreed to pay TiVo an initial payment
of $51 million, followed by recurring quarterly
guaranteed payments through June 2018, totaling $164
million, which together yield minimum payments of $215
million. In addition to these minimum payments, AT&T
will pay incremental recurring per subscriber monthly
license fees through July 2018 should AT&T's DVR
subscriber base exceed certain levels.
As part of the settlement, TiVo and AT&T 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.
"We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with AT&T, which acknowledges the value of our intellectual property," said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo. "This settlement, on the heels of our recent operational success that has resulted in the growth of TiVo's overall subscriber base, is another major accomplishment for TiVo and we believe a great outcome for our shareholders. The combination of guaranteed payments and future additional fees paid to TiVo in the event that AT&T's pay TV business continues to grow in-line with consensus analyst expectations, represents hard-earned compensation for our IP enforcement efforts. The settlement also provides us rights to innovate TiVo products and services under license from AT&T and allows us to avoid significant legal expenses that we expect would have been incurred by us during and after trial."
A similar $500 million settlement was reached by TiVo in May with satellite TV company Dish Network Corp. and its set-top box provider, EchoStar Corp.
As part of the settlement, TiVo and AT&T 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.
"We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with AT&T, which acknowledges the value of our intellectual property," said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo. "This settlement, on the heels of our recent operational success that has resulted in the growth of TiVo's overall subscriber base, is another major accomplishment for TiVo and we believe a great outcome for our shareholders. The combination of guaranteed payments and future additional fees paid to TiVo in the event that AT&T's pay TV business continues to grow in-line with consensus analyst expectations, represents hard-earned compensation for our IP enforcement efforts. The settlement also provides us rights to innovate TiVo products and services under license from AT&T and allows us to avoid significant legal expenses that we expect would have been incurred by us during and after trial."
A similar $500 million settlement was reached by TiVo in May with satellite TV company Dish Network Corp. and its set-top box provider, EchoStar Corp.