Broadband iTV, TWC Jousting Over Federal Circuit Ruling in Patent Fight

Broadband iTV, Hawaiian Telecom, Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Time Warner Cable are arguing over whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's ruling (in Pacer) earlier this month on McRo v. Bandai Namco Games America is applicable to BBiTV's appeal (see 1604070068) of a U.S. District Court's 2015 ruling on its patent violation litigation. The TWC appellees in a letter (in Pacer) Friday in the Federal Circuit said McRo has no impact on this case and BBiTV's letter "seems to be a pretext" for arguing about the patent containing a technological solution for transferring control of electronic program guide (EPG) from cable operators to content providers, but that argument was never presented in District Court or in BBiTV's briefing. There's nothing in the claims about EPG control transfer, and the patent claims automation only for a process done by hand, TWC said. In its citation of supplemental authority letter (in Pacer) earlier this month, BBiTV said the patent claim isn't centered merely on automation but also provides an inventive process for updating the EPG. The McRo patent fight had to do with automating a 3-D animation method. Charter Communications owns TWC.