Rovi and Intellectual Ventures today announced that the companies are collaborating to bring together two of the world’s leading media and entertainment patent portfolios under a unified, comprehensive licensing program to focus on over-the-top (OTT) offerings. Under the new agreement, Rovi will serve as the exclusive partner for IV, licensing the companies’ combined patent portfolio exclusively to OTT customers.
This alliance builds a combined and global intellectual property (IP) offering that leads the way in the discovery and personalization of digital entertainment.
The combined portfolio addresses all aspects of the OTT value chain, including content management and delivery, streaming technologies and consumer-facing features and functionality. Building on Rovi’s well-established patent licensing program, the addition of IV’s patents significantly expands the breadth and depth of assets licensable to OTT customers.
“We chose Rovi as a partner because of its world-class licensing program and valuable patent portfolio, which is well established within the media and entertainment market,” added Cory Van Arsdale, senior vice president, global licensing at Intellectual Ventures. “By bringing our patent portfolios together, we’ve created one of the most robust entertainment and media patent portfolios available anywhere in the world. This gives us an unparalleled opportunity to help drive further innovation for our joint customers in the rapidly growing OTT industry.”
“We are extremely pleased to join forces with Intellectual Ventures. Our alliance underscores Rovi’s commitment to foster innovation across the media and entertainment landscape,” said Samir Armaly, executive vice president, intellectual property and licensing at Rovi. “In addition to our advanced discovery product offerings, our collaboration with Intellectual Ventures will provide OTT licensees access to an even more extensive patent portfolio, all from a single provider.”
Rovi has one of the world’s largest media and entertainment patent portfolios, and its collaboration with IV more than doubles Rovi’s over 5,000 issued patents and pending applications worldwide directed to entertainment and media-related technologies. Rovi’s platform-independent, technology agnostic IP portfolio is licensed to leading companies around the world, including the biggest names in media and entertainment. The combined Rovi and IV license offering will enable OTT providers to develop and deploy innovative solutions that lead the way in the discovery and personalization of digital entertainment.
