TiVo's "Holy Grail" Ad Patent vs. TNS Media Research LLC

On Monday, February 22 2016, a court ruling in New York declared that three of the patents television giant TiVo Research and Analytics Inc. used to sue TNS Media Research LLC were invalid under the official standard of the US Supreme Court. One of the patents in particular, coined the ‘Holy Grail’ patent for target advertising, was rendered invalid because ‘abstract ideas using a computer are not patent-eligible’ according to the Law360 article posted this Tuesday, February 23. From here, the New York federal judge ruled that TiVo’s patent was neither innovative nor inventive, and therefor could not be an official patent. 

This patent, U.S. Patent Number 7,729,940, could be performed by humans as well as by computers, and therefore could not be technologically intellectual property. Further, another judge, Judge Scheindlin, ruled that the primary ideas behind the three TiVo patents being used in litigation against TNS were relatively basic and abstract in the sense that they could not be utilized to acquire damages  fromTNS. 

Later in 2013, Judge Scheindlin dumped out TiVo’s claims of infringement and trade secret completely, while only ordering a small damage recovery opportunity for them from TNS. However, later that year the Federal Circuit overruled some of Judge Scheindlin’s rulings, arguing that the actions of TNS were primary proponents in the huge loss of the valuation of TiVo. Their valuation fell from $54 million to $20 million. Currently, there is still no end result from this patent litigation case. There is still a great deal of details for the courts to examine before any definitive ruling can be set forth.

Article: http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/762164?nl_pk=688afd99-43da-41e2-baf9-0f852e028cd1&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ip

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhnVlCFIz-w&feature=youtu.be