TRA Patent Claims Dismissed

A US judge has thrown out the patent infringement part of TRA's claim against WPP firms including Kantar, over the companies' abortive merger talks and the subsequent launch of competing product RapidView. However, TRA's claims over breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty continue.

The case began in 2011, when TRA investor WPP filed a lawsuit against TRA over the latter's allegations that WPP-owned Kantar had 'ripped off' its MediaTRAnalytics TV audience/shopping data matching solution while developing its own RapidView product, just a few months after talks between the firms regarding a potential purchase of TRA by WPP broke down.

Kantar filed a request in the US District Court in Manhattan to dismiss the patent infringement claims, earlier this year.

This week, Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that Kantar and others did not misappropriate trade secrets as alleged, or unfairly scare off TRA investors by means of the competitive launch and legal action. Scheindlin also said TRA's claims that but for Kantar's actions its value in July of 2012 would have been $199m and not the $20m for which it was actually sold to TiVo, were 'sheer speculation'. However the judge ruled as moot Kantar's contention that TRA's patents were not valid.

TRA said it 'respectfully disagreed' with the judgement on patent infringement, and would shortly request a trial date for its remaining claims.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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