Bartonfalls LLC v. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. DC

Another apparent affiliate of IP Edge LLC, Bartonfalls LLC, has initiated a litigation campaign with a flurry of lawsuits against Advance Publications, Bloomberg, CBS, Comcast (NBC), Consumers Union of United States, Discovery Communications, Disney (ABC), Forbes, Meredith (Allrecipes.com), New York Times, Scripps Networks Interactive, Time Warner (TBS), Viacom, and Ziff-Davis. The new complaints assert a single patent (7,917,922), which relates generally to automatically changing the channel on a television. Bartonfalls accuses the defendants of infringement through mechanisms for automatically changing channels or programs in video platforms available on their websites. For example, the NPE alleges that Viacom infringes when the video player on the MTV website switches from, e.g., Rihanna’s live performance of “Stay / Love on the Brain / Diamonds” to The Chainsmokers’s live performance of “Closer”.