On Friday AT&T filed a patent lawsuit against Cox Communications alleging that the cable operator and over 30 of its regional systems had infringed on eight of its patents.
The patents were related to DVRs and set-top boxes as well as managing VoIP and data services. The suit, which was filed in a federal court in Delaware, also said AT&T had warned Cox about the patent infringement issues dating back to 2009 and 2010, but Cox had avoided working towards a resolution.
“Despite years of protracted negotiations, Cox has sought to avoid payment for its infringement by repeatedly delaying and rescheduling negotiations,” AT&T wrote in its lawsuit. “Given every opportunity, Cox has failed to provide substantial arguments for either non-infringement or invalidity of AT&T’s patents. Cox’s conduct constitutes a steadfast refusal to take a license, even though Cox generates billions of dollars in revenue every year through its use of AT&T’s technologies. AT&T has been forced to file this lawsuit to obtain a judgment that Cox owes royalty payments for its unauthorized use of AT&T’s patented inventions.”
A spokesman for Cox said this morning that the company doesn’t comment on active litigation.
AT&T said the eight patents in question were: Patent No. 5,809,492, Patent No. 6,487,200, Patent No. 6,118,976, Patent No. 6,952,668, Patent No. 7,233,897, Patent No. 6,993,353, Patent No. 7,908,140 and Patent No. 7,907,714.
