X Corp, Adeia settle legal fight over digital-media patents

Adeia

07/06/2024 23:14

By Blake Brittain
       June 7 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's X Corp has resolved a
lawsuit against technology licensing company Adeia  ADEA.O 
stemming from a dispute over a patent-licensing agreement,
according to a joint filing on Friday in California federal
court.
    X and Adeia told the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of California that they had reached a settlement in
principle on Tuesday and asked to pause the case while they
finalize it.
    Attorneys and spokespeople for the companies did not
immediately respond to requests for comment and more information
about the settlement.
    Adeia was the intellectual-property licensing unit of TiVo
owner Xperi  XPER.N  before Xperi was spun off into an
independent company last year.
    X, the social-media company formerly known as Twitter, sued
Adeia last year, seeking a declaration that it did not infringe
Adeia patents related to content recommendations, digital
advertising, social-media integration and other technology. It
told the court that it was suing to head off an expected Adeia
patent-infringement lawsuit following the breakdown of their
licensing agreement.
    According to the complaint, Adeia's predecessors TiVo and
Rovi agreed to license their patents to Twitter in 2019. The
lawsuit said that Adeia sued X in California state court in
August 2023 for allegedly breaching their contract.
    X said in its November complaint that it was terminating the
agreement because Adeia's lawsuit improperly revealed
confidential information about the contract, including that X
pays a licensing fee of $3 million per year.
    Adeia asked the court in January to dismiss X's lawsuit,
calling X's court claims a "strategic response" to Adeia's
attempt to collect unpaid royalties.
    
    The case is X Corp v. Adeia Inc, U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of California, No. 3:23-cv-06151.
    For X: David Silbert, Sharif Jacob and Kristen Lovin of
Keker Van Nest & Peters
    For Adeia: Ben Hattenbach, Charlotte Wen and Matt Ashley of
Irell & Manella
    
    Read more:
    X Corp sues Adeia to block US patent infringement claims