Frontier hit with $210M patent suit over Fios TV

Frontier Communications is being sued for $210 million by frequent patent litigator Blue Spike LLC for 11 alleged patent violations by the operator’s Fios TV service.

Frontier, which acquired Fios TV operations in California, Texas and Florida from Verizon back in 2015, is alleged to have violated patents related to watermark embedding technologies. Blue Spike also alleges violation of a 12th patent, this one related to Frontier’s business Wi-Fi service.

Tyler, Texas-based Blue Spike bills itself as a content management and applied security company, holding more than 100 patents spanning forensic watermarking, signal abstracts, data security, software watermarks, product license keys, ASLR and deep packet inspection.

In 2012, Blue Spike filed 45 patent suits in just two weeks. In 2014, the Electronic Frontier Foundation referred to Blue Strike as a “patent litigation factory.”

Law360 was the first to report on the lawsuit.

“Defendant has not sought or obtained a license for any of Blue Spike’s patented technologies,” Blue Spike said in its 143-page complaint. “This creates a competitive disadvantage to other companies, like Apple, Acer, Dell, IBM, Samsung and Sony.”

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Blue Spike is seeking royalties based on what its says are Frontier’s $50 million in royalties received so far from the alleged violations. With trebled damages, the amount comes to $210 million.