Velos Media, Under New Ownership, Takes Litigation Aim at TikTok

Velos Media, LLC has filed suit against ByteDance (TikTok) (1:25-cv-00967), asserting five patents from families originally developed at BlackBerry and one patent from a family originally developed at Sharp. In the Western District of Texas complaint, the plaintiff, a former Avanci licensor, targets the incorporation of certain encoders and decoders that support the H.265 standard within the TikTok platform. Velos Media pleads that it attempted to “open licensing negotiations with TikTok by first negotiating in good faith to fair terms in a mutual non-disclosure agreement”, but that TikTok’s “failure to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement on terms for a license to Velos’ patents (including Velos’ patented H.265 technologies) has forced Velos to institute this lawsuit”.