By Suevon Lee
Law360, Los Angeles (February 2, 2017, 5:22 PM EST) — Blackbird Technologies, a patent litigation company founded by former WilmerHale and Kirkland & Ellis partners, sued Netflix Inc. and Starz Entertainment LLC Wednesday in Delaware federal court for infringement of a patent relating to retrieval of pre-stored digital data for offline viewing.
The suits against the streaming entertainment companies bring identical allegations that they infringed U.S. Patent No. 7,174,362, titled “Method and System for Supplying Products from Pre-stored Digital Data In Response to Demands Transmitted via Computer Network,” which relates to a computer-implemented method where subscriber requests are processed by a computer over a network.
Blackbird is the owner by assignment of all right, title and interest to the ‘362 patent, which was issued in February 2007. The company has “sustained damages as a direct and proximate result of defendant’s infringement” and is “entitled to the recovery of past damages in the form of, at a minimum, a reasonable royalty,” according to the complaints.
With offices in Boston, Chicago, and Concord, Massachusetts, Blackbird describes itself as a “company dedicated to helping independent investors and small companies receive value from their patents.” Its two founding members are Wendy Verlander, a former IP partner at WilmerHale who litigated cases for large technology companies, and Chris Freeman, a former IP partner with Kirkland & Ellis who prior to that, helped found the Chicago office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhardt & Sullivan, according to his biography.
Blackbird has gone after a number of companies over IP relating to everything from LED bulbs to sports bra technology to shapewear products. It has initiated suits against such companies as Lululemon Athletica Inc., Asics, Amazon and New Balance, settling many such cases.
In the latest actions, Blackbird alleges that Netflix and Starz infringe two claims of the ‘362 patent. Those claims recite steps in which a computer creates a task log based on incoming requests, stores all available digital data for duplication, then retrieves the requested data and downloads it to an output device.
The alleged infringement occurs through the Starz app and Netflix app, which allow respective subscribers to download movies and television shows to their mobile device for offline viewing, according to the complaints.
Blackbird does not specify the amount of damages or royalty fees sought, but alleges the case should be deemed exceptional and that enhanced damages are warranted.
Representatives for Netflix and Starz could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Blackbird Tech is represented by its own Christopher Freeman, Wendy Verlander and Jo Handy and by Stamatios Stamoulis and Richard C. Weinblatt of Stamoulis & Weinblatt LLC.
Counsel information for Netflix and Starz wasn’t immediately available Thursday.
The cases are Blackbird Tech v. Netflix Inc., case number 1:17-cv-00100, and Blackbird Tech v. Starz Entertainment LLC, case number 1:17-cv-00102, both in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
–Editing by Emily Kokoll.