Netflix Subpoenas Investment Firm It Accuses of Bankrolling Patent Litigation

Netflix believes Fortress Investment Group is bankrolling infringement litigation that “patent assertion entity” Uniloc 2017 filed against the streaming company, and wants the court to force Fortress to produce documents under subpoena to expose their conspiracy, said a motion to compel (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Uniloc sued Netflix in November 2018 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleging infringement of three patents for accessing internet video content. It was one of several identical complaints Uniloc filed against other streaming services, including Hulu and Roku. All countersued. Uniloc’s “sole activity is serially litigating patents against operating companies to grind them down and force settlements far beyond the intrinsic value of the asserted patents,” said Netflix in a memorandum supporting the motion. Uniloc itself “does not determine which patents to litigate,” it said. “Someone has performed a business analysis of the patents” and directed Uniloc which ones to buy and “litigate them against Netflix,” it said. “That someone is Fortress.” Netflix served subpoenas on Fortress June 17 for financial records, emails and other documents, and demanded it produce a witness to be deposed, it said. “Fortress responded with a flat refusal to produce a single document or a witness on any of the narrow topics Netflix specified.” Fortress didn’t comment.