In October 2022, DivX, LLC filed two complaints against Amazon and VIZIO, one before the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the other in the Eastern District of Virginia. The latter was stayed in customary fashion to await the outcome of the ITC investigation, which resulted in a May 2024 finding in favor of Amazon (VIZIO having been terminated from the ITC investigation along the way), based on, among other things, noninfringement. Last week, DivX voluntarily dismissed that parallel stayed case, doing so on the same day that it filed a new complaint in the same district against Amazon (3:24-cv-00818), this one asserting six different patents.

Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Bryan F. Moore at the International Trade Commission (ITC) has posted a notice indicating that he has found no Section 337 violation “in the importation into the United States and the sale within the United States after importation of certain video processing devices and components thereof based on” the alleged infringement by Amazon of four patents held by DivX, LLC. The initial determination remains confidential. VIZIO, also a respondent in the same ITC action, was terminated from the investigation last September. A status report is due to Eastern District of Virginia Judge David J. Novak in mid-June in a parallel case that has been stayed to await the ITC outcome. Meanwhile, DivX district court cases are active again against Netflix and Realtek Semiconductor.

DivX, LLC (f/k/a DivX CF Holdings LLC) has filed a new round of suits in the litigation campaign that it began back in March 2019 with a pair of Central District of California cases, one filed against each of Hulu and Netflix. The new defendants are Amazon (3:22-cv-00687), sued in the Eastern District of Virginia, and VIZIO (8:22-cv-01955), also in the Central District of California, with the two named together as proposed respondents in a contemporaneous complaint filed before the International Trade Commission (ITC) (337-TA-3651). Five patents are asserted against Amazon, four of which are targeted at VIZIO as well, with DivX alleging a domestic industry based, in part, on identified, separate licenses with Disney and Element TV.

DivX, LLC has filed a second Eastern District of Texas complaint against Samsung (2:21-cv-00187), asserting three patents issuing in 2021, together with a fourth granted last year, all generally related to media streaming, distribution, and/or playback. Samsung is accused of infringement through the provision of portable computers, smartphones, and smart TVs, which “comprise decoders and include at least preinstalled Samsung Gallery and/or Netflix applications”, that support the streaming or playback of video. The complaint further flags the inclusion of the Hulu and/or Samsung TV Plus apps and comes as DivX and Samsung, as well as three other respondents, prepare for a July 7 hearing in the investigation before the International Trade Commission (ITC) based on a complaint that DivX filed there last September.

With its cases against Hulu and Netflix stayed in May pending multiple inter partes reviews (IPRs), DivX, LLC has filed a second wave of suits, this one hitting LG Electronics (LG) and Realtek Semiconductor; MediaTek (including subsidiary MStar Semiconductor) and TCL (along with multiple subsidiaries); and Samsung. Each of DivX’s September 9 complaints asserts four patents, three of which are new to litigation; the accused products include video processing devices, components thereof, and digital smart televisions, as well as semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and products incorporated into video processing devices.