Adeia initiates patent infringement litigation against Disney

Adeia (ADEA) announced today that it has filed multiple patent infringement lawsuits in the United States and Europe against The Walt Disney Company (DIS) and certain of its subsidiaries, including Hulu and ESPN. The company filed one lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and three lawsuits in Europe, including two in the Unified Patent Court and one in Germany. “We always prefer to reach a mutually agreeable resolution without litigation as we have done with the vast majority of our customers, however we were left with no choice but to defend our intellectual property from Disney’s unauthorized use,” said Paul Davis, CEO of Adeia. “We strongly believe these actions are in the best interests of the company, our shareholders and our customers. While we remain willing to negotiate a resolution that fairly compensates Adeia for our valuable intellectual property, we are also fully prepared to proceed through the entirety of the legal process to protect our rights, and we remain confident in our ability to achieve a positive outcome.” In its filings, Adeia alleges the Disney defendants infringe nine patents from Adeia’s media intellectual property portfolio – six patents in the United States and three in Europe. The patents at issue relate to various aspects of media streaming and content delivery technology.Over the past four decades, Adeia and its predecessor companies have continuously invested in research and development, resulting in one of the world’s largest IP portfolios comprised of more than 11,750 worldwide patent assets.