Best Buy Agrees to Pay TiVo to Settle Revenue-Sharing Dispute
Best Buy agreed to pay TiVo an undisclosed sum to settle a dispute stemming from a revenue-sharing agreement, TiVo disclosed in an SEC filing. TiVo had overpaid Best Buy under the pact, TiVo said.
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The settlement, which appeared to have been finalized in late August, but was disclosed in TiVo’s 10-Q earlier this month, came under a master marketing and development agreements that company signed in July 2009, TiVo said. Best Buy was to make the payment 15 days after the companies signed a general release, TiVo said.
The companies forged a five-year agreement to develop Blu-ray players and TVs under Best Buy’s Dynex and Insignia private label brands (CED July 10/09 p1). The pact was later revised to include non-DVR products like TVs that can’t record to a hard drive (CED Sept 10/10 p2). Best Buy shipped the first of these products -- 32- and 42-inch Insignia LCD TVs -- earlier featuring the TiVo user interface. Best Buy and TiVo officials weren’t available for comment on the settlement. Best Buy also sells TiVo’s Premiere DVRs.
Meanwhile, the International Trade Commission set July 2 as the target date for completing an investigation into Microsoft’s claims that TiVo DVRs infringe four of its patents. The ITC dropped two of the four patents from the probe, including those covering a remote system interface providing previews of applications and a TV scheduling system for displaying a grid representing the scheduled layout and program parameters for displaying or recording. An ITC hearing in the case began Nov. 30 and an initial determination is expected to be issued by March, TiVo said. Microsoft, which supplies software for AT&T’s U-verse set-top boxes, also sued TiVo for patent infringement in 2010. A trial in a separate patent infringement suit that TiVo filed against AT&T and Microsoft is scheduled to start Jan. 9 in U.S. District Court, in Marshall, Texas. TiVo also sued Verizon for patent infringement in 2009 and that case is pending.