Eastern District of Virginia Court Permanently Enjoins Verizon's VOD Service
An Eastern District of Virginia Court has permanently enjoined Verizon from infringing upon patents of a California-based Company, ActiveVideo Networks, Inc. (“ActiveVideo”), including two patents which will have a direct impact upon Verizon’s ability to offer its popular Video on Demand (“VOD”) services. In the case, ActiveVideo Networks, Inc. v. Verizon Communications, Inc., et al., ActiveVideo sued Verizon for allegedly infringing upon several of its patents. After a three-week jury trial, the jury found in favor of ActiveVideo and awarded it $115,000,000 in damages for Verizon’s infringement. ActiveVideo then sought a permanent injunction from the Court enjoining Verizon from continuing to infringe upon the patents.
In analyzing the injunction standard under the Patent Act, Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the Eastern District of Virginia relied heavily upon the four-part test set forth by the United States Supreme Court in the case of ebay, Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. The District Court found in favor of ActiveVideo regarding all four prongs finding that: 1) ActiveVideo had been, and would continue to be, irreparably harmed by Verizon’s unauthorized use of its technology; 2) ActiveVideo did not have an adequate monetary remedy at law because the continuing harm associated with loss of market share and brand recognition of the VOD service were difficult to quantify; 3) the balance of hardships favored ActiveVideo because, as a small company, it relied heavily upon the patents infringed upon by Verizon, while Verizon offered numerous services and would be less affected by having to cease use and/or find alternatives to offering the VOD service; and 4) public interests and public policy were served by protecting patent rights. Regarding this last prong, the Court specifically noted that, “[t]hough Verizon does add other components to be able to offer the completed product, Verizon’s FiOS system, and more specifically the VOD aspect of the FiOS system, could not function without the use of ActiveVideo’s technology.” Mem. Op. at 17.
Nevertheless, have no fear Verizon VOD users. The Court granted Verizon a six-month “sunset” window of time to come up with a non-infringing alternative to its current VOD system, and Verizon claims it has already been diligently working to come up with an alternative system. Therefore, before the time is up, it is likely Verizon will have embarked upon an alternative method to provide the popular VOD service to its customers – thus, enabling it to keep sending out those monthly Verizon bills to its subscribers at a brisk and healthy pace.
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