Despite the efforts of IP hotshot Mark Lemley, Rovi Corporation hit another dead end Tuesday in its litigation campaign against the digital TV industry. But rather than raising the white flag, in the wake of its defeat Rovi was threatening a follow-up case involving new patents.
In a 10-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of a patent case Rovi brought against Amazon Inc. and its subsidiary IMDb.com Inc. The court sided with Amazon’s interpretation of the claims in two Rovi patents, effectively blocking Rovi from alleging infringement of either patent. One patent related to electronic program guides (think of the on-demand menu provided by your cable operator), while the other covered a process of selling pay-per-view content through such guides.
