Roku Sued by Access Advance HEVC Licensors

BOSTON —Access Advance has announced that HEVC Advance Patent Pool Licensors have filed patent infringement proceedings against Roku for infringing patents essential to the HEVC/H.265 digital video coding standard (HEVC).

According to the complaints, Roku offers video streaming devices which incorporate HEVC technology.

Advance said that despite its long-term efforts to resolve patent infringements in good faith, Roku remained unwilling to voluntarily legalize its sales of HEVC capable products. In response, Advance Licensors filed suits that seek past royalties from Roku and an injunction against continuing infringement.

This news follows actions taken earlier this year in which Advance Licensors filed patent infringement proceedings against HP Inc. and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. for also infringing patents essential to the HEVC digital video coding standard.

The HEVC Advance Patent Pool allows companies to license patents essential to the HEVC Standard, including HEVC decoders and HEVC encoders for streaming on mobile and other connected devices, 4K televisions, and digital storage devices.

Beginning in 2015, the pool has grown to 43 Licensors and over 23,000 patents, representing approximately 75-80% of all available HEVC-essential patents. The pool has attracted over 320 Licensees, including Dell, Google, LG, Microsoft, OPPO, Huawei, Panasonic, Sony, and Lenovo.

Access Advance LLC is an independent licensing administrator company formed to lead the development, administration, and management of patent pools for licensing essential patents of the most important standards-based video codec technologies.