ITC refuses Verizon's appeal in Cablevision patent infringement case

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) was dealt another blow by the U.S. International Trade Commission yesterday when it declined to review an administrative law judge's conclusion that Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC) did not infringe on four of Verizon's patents related to set-top boxes.

Back in May, an ITC judge dismissed four of Verizon's patent claims against Cablevision but declared that the fifth one did infringe. The ITC upheld the decision about the fifth claim but a federal court has invalidated that patent in a separate patent infringement lawsuit.

"Having examined the record in this investigation, including the ALJ's [administrative law judge's] final ID [initial determination], the petitions for review, and the responses thereto, the Commission has determined not to review the final ID," the ITC commissioners wrote.

Cablevision said in a statement that the "ruling is a significant win for Cablevision." Verizon's legal action began in March 2010 when it filed the complaint with the ITC and sued Cablevision in a Delaware federal court. It accused Cablevision of infringing on several patents pertaining to digital set-top boxes and wanted a ruling to stop Cablevision from distributing the boxes. In its ITC complaint, Verizon claimed three Cablevision set-top boxes--the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 4250HD, the SA Explorer 8300HD and the SA Explorer 4200HD--violated five of the telco's patents.

Interestingly, Verizon has reached intellectual-property cross-licensing agreements with operators including Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR).

For more:
- see this Multichannel News article

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