Lawsuit

Cox Prevails Over Verizon VoIP Patent Suit

Bernie — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:06:36 -0400

A Virginia court ruled in Cox’s favor over Verizon in a patent dispute over VoIP technology. Verizon was hoping to repeat a VoIP patent victory over Vonage, which resulted in a $117 million settlement. No such luck with Cox. "We remain deeply committed to providing our customers high-quality phone service at a great value, and look forward to competing vigorously with Verizon in the marketplace, not the courtroom," the company said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters. Verizon is pursuing a similar patent infringement suit with Charter. Looks like Charter’s defense just got a little stronger, and Cablevision and Time Warner Cable have a little less VoIP patent issues to worry about.

Verizon: Not So Fast FCC, Cable

Bernie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:43:26 -0400

Verizon intends to have the last word on their “winback” marketing tactics. They were recently rebuffed by the FCC and told to stop contacting customers to attempt to win them back after receiving a competitor number porting request. Verizon filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, seeking to stay the recent FCC decision. Verizon is using the first amendment right of free speech as the core of their argument, arguing the FCC decision violates this right. Verizon is also arguing the decision violates section 222(b) of the Communications Act of 1996. Look for this to drag out for a while. Get the details from this Light Reading post.

Verizon Sues Time Warner for “Not Keeping it Real”

Bernie — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:30:43 -0400

Verizon filed a false advertising suit against Time Warner Cable in the southern district of New York. Verizon said Time Warner Cable's TV ads wrongly portray Verizon's FiOS video service as a satellite delivered video service that does not offer the triple play. As a result, Verizon says Time Warner Cable is improperly positioning Time Warner Cable as a better technology for triple play services. This current lawsuit joins many others, some of which have been settled, that pit telecom and video service providers against each other in the high stakes game of wooing potential triple play and video customers. DirecTV has seen its fair share of lawsuits. So too have other cable companies.

Verizon claims these ads are causing "immediate and irreparable harm,” and is seeking an injunction barring Time Warner Cable from running the ads, as well as issuing a retractment of the ads claims. Verizon is also seeking damages, including lost profits and attorney's fees. Time Warner Cable spokesman Alex Dudley tells Reuters, "We feel the lawsuit is without merit and we look forward to defending against it in the appropriate venue."

My HD is Better Than Yours!

Bernie — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:42:01 -0400

Yet another dust up between DirecTV and a cable MSO, Cox in this case, over who delivers the better HD signal. Multichannel News is reporting that DirecTV filed a misleading advertising suit against Cox over certain Cox Internet ads. In the ads, Cox cites a survey that concluded that cable HD was preferred over satellite HD. That same survey is at the center of a lawsuit between DirecTV and Comcast. DirecTV says the survey was flawed, and thus the data should not be used to assert and support HD viewing preferences among subscribers. Time Warner Cable turned the tables on DirecTV earlier this year, suing them for false advertising over HD as well. DirecTV recently settled that lawsuit.

These lawsuits reflect the growing role HD plays as a competitive differentiator. Service providers take their HD reputation seriously, and don’t take lightly to inferiority claims. All multichannel video service providers are actively executing a HD strategy. DirecTV appears to have much of the HD momentum, claiming around 70 HD feeds today, with 100 promised by year end. These multiple advertising campaigns may be one strategy to slow their momentum. Expect the lawsuits to continue.