Apple and OpenTV Owner Settle Patent Litigation

The Kudelski Group, a Swiss digital TV security company, has reached a settlement with Apple, and as such another patent litigation against the iPhone maker ends (via Reuters).

Apple tv

The patent dispute started two years ago in May 2014, when the Kudelski Group filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the iPhone, iPad and iPod, as well as the Apple TV and Mac computers, violate the video streaming patents owned by Kudelski’s OpenTV business through the Nagra company.

After two years of legal wrangling, a three-judge panel at the Düsseldorf district court ruled in March 2016 that Apple is indeed liable for patent violation and that Kudelski’s “claim is predominantly valid and well-founded.”

The ruling was subject to appeal, but apparently Apple has decided to end the patent litigation and pay the fee instead. No financial data was disclosed, however, in the Kudelski press release announcing the settlement.

According to a UBS analyst cited by Reuters, Kudelski “likely received one-time payments totaling 60 million to 80 million Swiss francs ($62 million to $83 million) from separate settlements with other companies from 2014 to 2016.” Another analyst from Zuercher Kantonalbank agreed that Kudelski received a one-time payment from Apple, as well as “an agreement for reciprocal use of patents.”

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