Kudelski settles patent litigation with Apple

Switzerland-based TV technology specialist, Kudelski Group, has agreed a patent license agreement with Apple, ending a legal tussle between the two firms.

In a statement, Kudelski described the with patent agreement as “comprehensive” and said that under the deal the companies have agreed to “dismiss all pending patent litigation”.

In 2014 Kudelski subsidiaries Nagravision and OpenTV filed claims for three patent infringements against Apple in the Düsseldorf District Court in Germany.

The companies alleged that Apple infringed patents owned by them and were seeking to prevent the US technology giant from further infringement.

According to Kudelski at the time, the infringements spanned Apple’s iOS mobile devices, Apple TV, the App Store and OS X-based computers.

News of the new patent agreement comes after Kudelski separately settled all pending patent litigation it had with Yahoo in May this year. The two companies entered a patent license agreement whereby Yahoo agreed to make a one-time up-front license fee payment to Kudelski.

Kudelski-owned OpenTV filed a patent infringement counter-suit against Yahoo in the US in April in the District Court for the Northern District of California. The group alleged that Yahoo infringed 10 US patents owned by OpenTV and identified a number of infringing products and services, including Yahoo Smart TV, Yahoo Connected TV, Yahoo TV, Yahoo interactive video advertisements, Yahoo fantasy gaming and Yahoo Screen.