Widevine, Verimatrix Settle Patent Dispute

Widevine Technologies and Verimatrix, which each sell digital content-security solutions, reached an agreement settling Widevine's patent-infringement lawsuit against its rival, the companies announced late Tuesday.

Financial terms of the agreement weren't disclosed. Under the settlement, Widevine granted Verimatrix a license to the two asserted Widevine patents and their foreign counterparts. San Diego-based Verimatrix made no admission as to infringement of the patents.

Widevine had sued Verimatrix in August 2007 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging Verimatrix's VCAS infringed U.S. Patent No. 7,165,175, "Apparatus, System and Method For Selectively Encrypting Different Portions Of Data Sent Over A Network." Widevine later added a second patent to that suit, U.S. Patent No. 7,376,831, a follow-on to the ‘175 patent that also covers a method for selectively encrypting content over a network.

Separately, Widevine sued Verimatrix in July 2008 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, alleging that Verimatrix's ViewRight client application infringes Widevine's U.S. Patent No. 7,299,292, which describes a process and streaming server for encrypting a data stream to a virtual smart card client system. That lawsuit was dismissed in early 2009.

Seattle-based Widevine's investors include Liberty Global, Samsung, Cisco Systems, Charter Ventures and Telus.