Insignia Smart TVs Infringe Patent Originally Assigned to Siemens, Says Complaint

Best Buy’s private-label Insignia smart TVs infringe an 11-year-old patent in how they enable owners to use discovery and launch (DIAL) technology to “cast” content to an Insignia set from a smartphone, alleged a complaint Tuesday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Plaintiff Cassiopeia IP owns all “rights of recovery” to U.S. patent 7,322,046 and “is entitled to a monetary judgment in an amount adequate to compensate” it for Best Buy’s infringement, it said. The patent was originally assigned to Siemens in January 2008, Patent and Trademark Office records show. It describes a method for secure use of a network service using a “blackboard on which all usable services are entered,” said the complaint. A blackboard is a software or hardware “component” that stores all available devices and applications a user “can cast to,” it said. The technology embedded in the patent improved network services “at the time of the invention by providing a secure way” to use them, it said. The Insignia TVs perform seven steps of DIAL functionality, all in “direct infringement” of the patent, it said. Best Buy didn’t comment Wednesday.