VOD Patent Suit Lodged Against Six Biggest U.S. Cable Operators

A patent-licensing firm is trying to squeeze cash from the six largest cable operators, alleging they infringe on two patents it owns related to video on demand technology.

A holding company identified as Pragmatus VOD LLC sued Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Bright House Networks. The suit, filed Jan. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, seeks unspecified damages for "past infringement and any continuing or future infringement." The patents in questions are U.S. Patent Nos. 5,581,479 ("Information service control point, which uses different types of storage devices, which retrieves information as blocks of data, and which uses a trunk processor for transmitting information") and 5,636,139 ("Information service control point which retrieves information as blocks of data").