Verizon decides to put some patent battles in the rear view mirror

Verizon lost one patent infringement round in court and has now decided to put some disputes behind it. In two separate agreements reached yesterday, Verizon settled with cloudTV provider ActiveVideo Networks and digital video recorders maker TiVo, Inc. for a total payout in excess of $500B and future licensing deals.

In November of 2011, the U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Virginia, issued an injunction against Verizon and its Fios TV service to "cease and desist" from the unlawful use of intellectual property belonging to ActiveVideo Networks. Yesterday ActiveVideo Networks announced the settlement having agreed to a damages figure in excess of the $260M awarded in 2011 plus an agreement to cross-license each other’s patents.

Avoiding an October trial and likely a similar result, Verizon will pay TiVo, Inc. at least $250.4 million to settle their patent lawsuit related to TiVo’s DVR technology, and the two also signed a licensing deal while dismissing all pending litigation.