The Federal Court issued public reasons for judgment in Rovi Guides v. Videotron, 2022 FC 874. The Court found the four asserted patents invalid for being obvious and/or anticipated and accepted non-infringement defences advanced by the defendant, Videotron. If there had been liability, the Court concluded that the Plaintiff would not have been entitled to an accounting of profits and a design-around cost would have been a reasonable upper bound for any royalty. Videotron was represented by a team from DLA Piper including Bruce Stratton, Alan Macek, Michal Kasprowicz, Gabriella Levkov and Nicole Nazareth.

This proceeding was initiated in 2017 and was the Federal Court’s first virtual trial when the pandemic hit in March 2020. Several interlocutory decision were reported including at the Federal Court of Appeal on the availability of third party discovery (2019 FCA 321) and on a virtual trial protocol (2020 FC 637).

Videotron issued a statement regarding its win.