Dish Network Sinks Digital Rental, Targeted Ad Patents

摘要

Dish Network Corp. defeated a pair of patents owned by an Australian media company designed to ensure return of digital video rentals and rent device space for consumer-targeted advertisements. Two of Customedia Technologies LLC's patents lacked the inventive concepts needed to be patentable, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled July 25. Barring a successful appeal, the invalidations relieve Dish from the bulk of Customedia's four-patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. U.S. Patent No. 7,840,437 described a system for managing digital data and transactions to ensure audio and video data rented by a consumer could only be viewed for a limited time. U.S. Patent No. 9,053,494 described storage space-tabbed as a "virtual transaction zone"- where data could be stored and rented to advertisers with the capability to target those ads based on user habits.