Chipmaker Broadcom has sued Netflix over patent infringements with regard to video playback and data transmission.
According to the company that manufactures semiconductor chips for cable set-top boxes, Netflix has infringed on eight patents dealing with video playback and data transmission.
This has impacted the company’s sales as demand for cable devices reduced due to Netflix’s video streaming technology, according to the lawsuit filed by the chip manufacturer on Friday.
“As a direct result of the on-demand streaming services provided by Netflix, the market for traditional cable services that require set-top boxes has declined, and continues to decline, thereby substantially reducing Broadcom’s set-top box business,” Broadcom said in the suit.
The company said that it had tried to negotiate with Netflix back in September. The OTT giant, however, had refused to respond.
“Representatives of the Broadcom Entities have repeatedly attempted to engage Netflix in licensing discussions. As part of these attempts, the Broadcom Entities informed Netflix of its infringement of the patents asserted in this complaint,” the lawsuit further read
This is not the first time that the chipmaker has tried to take the legal route against the competition.
The company had filed a lawsuit against smart TV manufacturers back in 2017. The U.S. International Trade Commission had ruled against the company stating that the smart TV manufacturers named in the suit, Vizio and Sigma Designs, had not infringed on Broadcom’s patents as alleged, according to media reports.
In another instance, a Los Angeles jury had ordered Apple and Broadcom to pay $1.1 billion to a university in California for infringing on four Wi-Fi technology patents in January. Broadcom is intending to appeal the verdict, it had said in a public statement.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.