Alphonso Prevails in Patent Dispute with Samba TV

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 31, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- TV data company Alphonso has won a major decision in a three-year patent dispute with Free Stream Media, doing business as Samba TV. On December 28, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Alphonso's motion for summary judgment of non-infringement in a case filed three years ago by Samba TV. In 2017, Samba TV was compelled to dismiss half of its patent infringement suit against Alphonso, based on a failure to provide evidence of infringement by Alphonso.

In the suit, Samba claimed Alphonso operates a TV-to-digital retargeting system in violation of Samba's patents. The court ruling said, "because the undisputed facts regarding how Alphonso's system operates show it does not meet all of the claim elements, Alphonso's motion for summary judgment will be granted."

Separately, Alphonso is suing Samba TV in Delaware alleging Samba has infringed on two Alphonso patents, and has made false or misleading statements regarding its business relationships with smart TV companies. Additionally, Nielsen Holdings' Gracenote filed a suit against Samba TV in October 2018 claiming Samba is infringing on four different Gracenote patents.

Alphonso Chief Executive Officer Ashish Chordia said, "Our clear and categorical victory in this motion validates that Alphonso's technology does not infringe on Samba TV's patents. Alphonso's video AI for TV content indexing, as well as machine learning and video and audio ACR for TV viewership data collection, are set apart as unique in our industry. Alphonso has 30 issued patents, with an additional 25 that have been applied for and are currently in process."

Alphonso collects TV viewership data from over 15 million U.S. households across leading smart-TV brands including but not limited to Hisense, LG and Sharp.  Adding distribution across set-top-box brands like Tivo and Sling, and across opted-in mobile devices, Alphonso's total distribution reaches 34 million U.S. households, as verified by matching with Experian households. More details about Alphonso's smart-TV distribution were announced in a separate news release today supported by a Nielsen study.

About Alphonso

Alphonso is a TV data company and the market leader in providing brands and agencies with verified TV audiences on mobile devices and the web. Its Alphonso TV Data Cloud services power TV retargeting and brand insights for hundreds of the Fortune 500 brands and agencies in the U.S. The company enables its clients to amplify their TV spend with digital, and to reach targeted TV demographics across all screens.

With video AI technology embedded in tens of millions of hardware and software products, including smart TVs, TV chipsets, set-top boxes, and mobile apps, Alphonso understands what programming and advertising people watch on TV. Through its Alphonso Insights SaaS offering, Alphonso delivers actionable insights and closed-loop attribution with offline data in real time, to help its customers understand the true impact of TV advertising. To learn more, visit www.alphonso.tv.

SOURCE Alphonso

Related Links

www.alphonso.tv