Technology company Adeia has filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and its various entities — including Hulu and ESPN — for allegedly violating its patent rights in video streaming technology.
The 167-page legal complaint, obtained by TheWrap, was filed Thursday in Delaware federal court and accuses Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+ of breaching six of Adeia’s patents that cover several streaming functionality improvements, as well as episode tracking methods, cloud data storage, key frame detection and synchronization, among other processes.
“We always prefer to reach a mutually agreeable resolution without litigation as we have done with the vast majority of our customers, however we were left with no choice but to defend our intellectual property from Disney’s unauthorized use,” Adeia CEO Paul Davis said in a Thursday statement. He added that Adeia is open to negotiating a “resolution that fairly compensates” the company.
The California-based company stated in its suit that it owns more than 11,500 patents and patent applications globally and has made licensing partnership deals with various companies, such as Cox Communications and Verizon.
“Defendants’ acts of infringement have caused damage to Adeia,” the lawsuit continued. “Adeia is entitled to recover from Defendants the damages sustained by Adeia as a result of their wrongful acts in an amount subject to proof at trial.”
Adeia has demanded a trial by jury on all issues “so triable,” and the company is requesting monetary damages in an unspecified amount.
Disney did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
