WilmerHale secured a complete victory for Netflix, Inc. following a seven-day jury trial in a long-running patent infringement action brought by DivX, LLC in the US District Court for the Central District of California. The jury found that Netflix did not infringe any of the four asserted patents, resulting in no liability despite DivX’s request for more than $400 million in damages.

The case, DivX, LLC v. Netflix, Inc., No. 19-cv-01602, was filed in 2019 and involved patents relating to video streaming and encryption technologies. Proceedings were stayed for several years while the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) considered Netflix’s inter partes review challenges to the asserted patents. WilmerHale was retained shortly before the stay was lifted in May 2024, at which point DivX was asserting infringement of seven patents and seeking more than $500 million in damages.

Netflix obtained summary judgment on two asserted patents after the court concluded they failed to claim patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Earlier this month, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the PTAB’s decision upholding a third patent, and DivX granted Netflix a covenant not to sue on that patent.

At trial, DivX proceeded on seven claims across four patents. After a full day of deliberations, the jury returned a defense verdict on all asserted claims, finding that Netflix did not infringe any of the asserted patents.

The WilmerHale team was led by Mindy Sooter, Brittany Amadi, Arthur Coviello, Andrew Danford, Jeffrey Dennhardt, Taylor Gooch, Dominic Massa, and Kate Saxton, and relied on a critical team of attorneys, including Gennifer Birkenfeld-Malpass, Daniel Clark, Alicia Coneys, Ravi Deol, Sydney Donovan, Leah Fugere, Gawon Go, Noah Guiney, Suchinder Kalyan, Jorge Kina, Brian Lambson, Joe Mueller, Sarah Murphy, Zach Nemtzow, Chip O’Neill, Daniel Perry, Hannah Santasawatkul, Irene Xu, and others over time.