No end to blackout in sight as DISH sues Univision for patent infringement

As the battle over retransmission fees continues to leave Univision networks in the dark at DISH, the satellite operator has filed a lawsuit against the Spanish-language media company for patent infringement.

The suit states that DISH Technologies owns several streaming patents, which it purchased from MOVE Networks Inc., and alleges Univision has been infringing on those patents though its Univision NOW, Univision app and Univision Deportes services.

“DISH is seeking to enforce its patents related to HTTP-based adaptive bitrate streaming technology that enables content delivery to adapt to the bandwidth available at any particular time, ensuring the highest possible quality content for the available bandwidth throughout the course of the stream. DISH has filed multiple lawsuits related to infringement of these patents, and additional suits are likely to follow,” the company says in a statement.

Univision denies the claims.

“As we previously informed DISH, we deny that we are in violation of any of its patents,” states a Univision spokesperson. “As such, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these claims.”

DISH previously sued Univision in 2017 for breach of contract, accusing Univision of streaming Liga MX soccer matches on Facebook in violation of their carriage agreement, undercutting the value of their distribution deal.

Univision last year field a countersuit against DISH for false advertising and trademark infringement. Univision accused DISH of using the Univision trademark and logo on ads for its “Latino Bonus Pack” on its website and flyers more than two months after the channel was no longer available on the service.

The Univision blackout on DISH is now in its eight month.