In a Dutch trial a claim by Kudelsi-owned OpenTV against Netflix was denied on the grounds that the patent was now innovative. A similar lawsuit is running in the USA.
The OpenTV patent EP 0879534 in essence claims that a URL (or other locator) for online services is sent along invisibly with the video and can be presented on the screen for user selection (priority date is 1996). The court agrees with Netflix that there is a patent WO 97/02699 with an earlier priority date (1995) that establishes the same technique. This renders the patent of OpenTV largely useless. Here is the Dutch patent verdict.
There is another lawsuit on a second patent pending between OpenTV and Netflix. To be continued.
Computerworld – Nederlands Netflix-verbod in de kiem gesmoord.
