Introduction

I will start quoting, MultiChannel article that describes the genesis of this dispute..

Stingray and Music Choice have a long history. In 2015, Music Choice sued Stingray for patent infringement after AT&T U-verse dropped Music Choice in favor of the Canadian company. Music Choice had claimed that Stingray’s service included digital audio music and video-on-demand features that infringed on its patents, features that Stingray enhanced after getting access to confidential information during talks about possibly buying Music Choice in 2015. Stingray counter-sued, asserting “claims of unfair competition, defamation, trade libel, tortious interference with existing and prospective contractual relationships, and unfair competition.” (Source: Multichannel)

It was very interesting that in 2017, Stingray made a $120M offer to Music Choice, that was, rejected, not publicly, simply ignored. The offer was sweet basically no strings attached, and likely this case in dispute completely dismissed.

“Canadian digital and music video company Stingray Digital Group said it has made an unsolicited offer to purchase pay TV stalwart Music Choice for $120 million. (Id) “

As  consequence of this lawsuit, multiple other litigation steps have followed this case: IPR,  Counter Claims, Daubert challenges, and much more. I have been tracking this case I have a portfolio in the same are as “Music Choice” & “Stingray Digital”

Now all my observations have become a reality and in a way, my analysis of this cases even in 2017 is now a reality. In summary, I concluded that:

• Stingray IPRs was not going to be super successful, as the PTAB judges were not fully convinced with the arguments.
• I still believe that Music Choice’s slashed patents by PTAB might have some light in appeal.
• Damages Report, challenged by Stingray, with a multi-million dollar award was going to be accepted by the court
• Alice defenses were futile by Stingray
• Trial was going to be conducted and all other defenses denied

Now this case is scheduled for trial Dec 9th, 2019 in Marshall, TX.

Opinions

Several rulings have gone unfavorable to Stingray Digital which includes adoption of Magistrate judge opinions and ordering denying the Daubert challenge made to Dr. Keith Ugone, the damages expert in the case representing Music Choice, Inc.  Clearly, a big reverse to Stingray specially when Dr. Ugone has testified that a “non-infringing alternative” presented by Stingray was not suitable and hence, the damages model was at least $23M from the numbers released in a court ruling.

 For that reason and the other reasons stated within the Order, the Court agrees with the conclusion reached within the Order. The Magistrate Judge’s Recommendation is therefore ADOPTED. 

On second adverse ruling, Judge Payne has provided to Judge Gilstrap its report and recommendations regarding the Alice challenge that Stingray has made against Music Choice, Inc patents. The adverse ruling indicates that as a matter of law, Alice Step One, fails and there is no need to conduct any further steps,

The Court concludes that each of the remaining asserted claims are not directed to an abstract idea at Alice Step One. Because the Court resolves the Alice inquiry at Step One, the Court need not proceed to Alice Step Two. Thus, the Court recommends that Music Choice’s cross-motion be GRANTED and that Stingray’s motion for judgment on the pleadings be DENIED. 

As jury selection is due December 9th, 2019, clearly Stingray has a low change of surviving and in my opinion, Stingray has increase its chances to be found guilty of infringement and pay a hefty amount, likely a multi-million dollar judgment and a potential injunction relief favorable to stingray.

What will happen?

Stingray digital has to find a way to now settle this case or, discuss a way to present my patents as a non-infringing alternative to Music Choice, either way, its is not good to be in this position.

Stingray made an offer for $120M to purchase Music Choice, and Music Choice rejected the offer, risked a trial and now their position has been getting more solid day after day.  I would assume that it will have to make an offer around that to settle? That means that Stingray’s revenues in the US, which totals $9M per Quarter or $36M/year are now at risk.

The current damages report shows a $23M loss profits made by Music Choice as of this date, however a full report is only REDACTED and unavailable to the public.

“Revenues in the United States increased 12.2% to $9.4 million (12.9% of total revenues) and in Other Countries, revenues increased by 31.3% to $16.1 million (22.1% of total revenues)” (Source: Globenewswire).

Greenberg and Trauig is defending Stingray and Dechert Law, LLP is Music Choice’s plaintiff. I will keep track on more updates to follow.

Why Cloud to Cable?

Cloud to Cable is a patented solution for music streaming providers to distribute content to MVPDs. Amplify your offering from online streaming to Cable TV & IPTV systems with linear channels and SVOD subscritions. Create visually appealing streams with great sound, bundled with a mobile experience through the MEVIA app.

Music and Video are ready in all broadcasting platforms for easy monetization from your affiliates in MVPD, IPTV, Smart TVs & Mobile systems.Cloud to Cable are high-performance servers ready for your customer’s CABSAT headend, with a fault-tolerance design forquick integration. The content is available in mobile applications and Cable TV Broadcasts as SVOD or linear channels, all at once.

For more details:

Technology Licensing

Some existing patents, now expiring, cover VOD linking and Visual Complement to generate music streams for MVPD (Multi-video Programming Distribution) providers.

Our innovative technologies achieve better results and more benefits under patents US Pat. 10,123,074 , US20190037271, PCT 16/152,606 and EP3238457 (under prosecution) with 39 approved claims.

The MEVIA App is in charge of interfacing with the end-user via mobile phone or smart TV.

These patents are implemented in software and hardware for music broadcasting as a “Music for Cable TV” service for operators.

The software includes modules in Python, C/C++, and PHP, Linux OS-baseline only. Servers are configured for high-reliability and fault-tolerance designed for MVPD systems.

The system creates visual components and mixes high-end audio with the HTML-based interfaces that are then broadcasted into the CABLE TV System, IPTV Network, or to the mobile devices.

The technology and patents are available for licensing or acquisition.

Dr. Edwin A. Hernandez will be attending a judge for the Global Mobile Awards at the Mobile World Congress 2020 in Barcelona, Spain.
Stay tuned for coverage from TECHED.tv

This analysis only works when Panduit testfails for a computation of loss profits and only works for a reasonable royalty damagers model.

I personally submitted a damages report in a the case: Mobility Workx, LLC vs Cellco Partnership aka Verizon Wireless in the E.D. Texas, and Judge Mazzant ordered me to present it to a jury which means a Daubert challenge was made and survived..

The model I created for damages can be used for many technology disputes where “Key Performance Indicators” are measured to map a business performance, and how and what intellectual property maps to the revenues generated by a business and its performance.

My report mapped, KPIs from ETSI Specification “TS 32.451 Version 8.0.0 Release 8”  describing the following subcategories:

• Accessibility
• Retainability
• Integrity
• Availability
• Mobility

Judge Mazzant accepted my report due to my experience at Motorola and all my overall resume working with startups, licensing deals, and being part of multiple patent and technology licensing agreements that involved companies like Qualcomm, Google, and many others.

For example, TS 32.451 contain several KPIs for LTE Systems or E-UTRAN and you can map an Intellectual Property piece to one or several subcategories, and then from that category you can then establish the proper proportion of what an intellectual property maps to, which means that clearly a percentage of the revenues that a company generates can be mapped to a certain technology.

Key performance Indicators are part of not only 4G LTE systems but are found in most technological systems.  The process is presented in the following slides:

KPI - Damages Reports
In summary, one can say that many KPIs have a mapping to revenues, and that’s how companies can value performance to value.

Once these mappings are determined, which all KPIs may offer the same proportion of value to the generated revenues of a corporation, then one can map the features of a patent portfolio to one or many KPIs and create a weighed average of contribution to the KPIs and hence to the revenues.

In the following charts, I represent that maybe a single patent or IP maps to a KPI which equates to a percentage of the revenues, let’s say it is 20%. Assume for a second that the KPI category contains 20 parameters, that for simplicity will be equally weighted.  As such, the technology where damages are being calculated corresponds to 2 parameters let’s say, hence a 10% of the KPI is then affected or benefited by the patents or technologies.

Setting up a royalty rate, of let’s say 3% to 5% seems reasonable and affects only the percentage of the revenues a KPI is affected by the patents. Hence, there is no dispute on how much effect a patent or an IP affects a business model.

KPIs are usually defined by the defendant or an industry-defined, like in LTE, and each are granular enough that a mapping between a patent portfolio and /or an intellectual property can be mapped to. 

As such a simply royalty yield of 5% can be used to compute an overall royalty that only affects the revenues generated by let’s say LTE Revenues for example, or any other technology with KPIs.

if you have any questions you can contact me or hire me to calculate your damages report.

• US patents
• European patents
• Software and trade secrets

• Music broadcasting to Operators, mobile, IPTV, cable TV, or even satellite,
• Modern virtualization and cloud technologies integrated into our software,
• Broadcasting with fault-tolerance, ready for high-reliability, and great quality of service.
• Parallel transcoding meaning you can deliver 5, 10, 50, even 100 music or TV channels depending on the hardware chosen, number of instances, and bandwidth purchased from us,
• Web-based approach, yes all is web-based, no funky DIGICIPHER II, MPEG TS, or any of that, all if works on the web, works with Cable TV, Satellite, all and all.
• Interactive and VOD integration
• TV & Music all in one Platform

US Patent 10,123,074

What is Cloud to Cable?

• Integration of web-elements, web pages, or HTML5-related content with rendering of this content on OTT, IPTV, and most importantly, Cable TV systems.
• Virtualization and use of containers in the distribution of music and TV content to cable operators, by provision at virtual machine or docker container with the web page plus content for rendering purposes.
• Essentially, the patent covers music and TV distribution to cable operators and systems for broadcasting.
• Over-the-Top, IPTV systems, or Cable TV operators can now integrate novel ReactJS, Javascript, and all advanced mechanisms for designing user interfaces into their video feeds.
• Audio and music channels can be integrated and created by just connecting to the web-based content provider.
• Fault-tolerance and high-reliability is presented in the disclosure.

Cloud to Cable Video

• RTMP Server or WebRTC Setup to receive video feeds from Smartphones or your laptop,
• FFMPEG to encode, compress, and publish  video/audio feeds
• Mobile App with RTMP Client or WebRTC Client or laptop. We tried several but this one worked out ok.
• A web application in Python to map each feed and position it on top of the TV Channel video source (assuming an M3U8 feed or a movie in MP4)

• The safari browser doesn’t allow you to play content with autoplay features, meaning that the user MUST initiate a playback. If SAFARI sees or detects that onLoad the content autoplays this fails.
• There are issues with SAFARI and dynamically loading the content and video.oncanplaythrough() is required to be added to the javascript.

• Convert and push from mobile phone to RTMP Server,
• Grab RTMP Stream and send it as an m3u8 encoded file to the website.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                     Services|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| c |      ip       | port|   protocol stack name   |     application name    |
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 1112|           inboundJsonCli|                    admin|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 1935|              inboundRtmp|              appselector|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 8081|             inboundRtmps|              appselector|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 8080|             inboundRtmpt|              appselector|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 6666|           inboundLiveFlv|              flvplayback|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 9999|             inboundTcpTs|              flvplayback|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 5544|              inboundRtsp|              flvplayback|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 6665|           inboundLiveFlv|             proxypublish|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 8989|         httpEchoProtocol|            samplefactory|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 8988|             echoProtocol|            samplefactory|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+
|tcp|        0.0.0.0| 1111|    inboundHttpXmlVariant|                  vptests|
+---+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-------------------------+

ffmpeg -re  -i rtmp://96.71.39.58/live/pablo -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -ac 1 -strict -2 -crf 18 -profile:v baseline -maxrate 200k -bufsize 1835k -pix_fmt yuv420p -flags -global_header -hls_time 3 -hls_list_size 4 -hls_wrap 10 -start_number 1 /var/www/html/live/pablo.m3u8

ffmpeg -re  -i rtmp://96.71.39.58/live/gus -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -ac 1 -strict -2 -crf 18 -profile:v baseline -maxrate 200k -bufsize 1835k -pix_fmt yuv420p -flags -global_header -hls_time 3 -hls_list_size 4 -hls_wrap 10 -start_number 1 /var/www/html/live/gus.m3u8

ffmpeg -f avfoundation -list_devices true -i "" 

ffmpeg -f avfoundation -i "3:0" -t 120 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v libx264 -c:a libmp3lame -r 25 teleport.mov

var canvas = document.getElementById("c");
var context = canvas.getContext("2d");

window.onload = function() {
 // document.getElementById("fb-profile").style.display = "none";
  
    var canvas = document.getElementById("c");
    var context = canvas.getContext("2d");
    // grab the video element
    // var video = document.getElementById("v");
    
    // drawVideo(context, video, canvas.width, canvas.height);
    // calls drawVideo() function, passing all the objects

}

var splayer = {};

function showIt(id, url, hideOrNot) {
  console.log(id+"  "+url+ " setting it to " +hideOrNot); 

  splayer["v_"+id] = document.getElementById("v_"+id);
  document.getElementById(id).style.display = hideOrNot;
  if (document.getElementById(id).style.display == "none" ) { 
     document.getElementById(id).style.display = "block";
     var vId = "vsrc_"+id; 
     console.log("playing "+vId + "  "+url);
     document.getElementById(vId).src = url;
     if (splayer["v_"+id].paused) { 
        console.log("Video paused.... ");
        splayer["v_"+id].load();
        splayer["v_"+id].oncanplaythrough = function() {
            splayer["v_"+id].play();
         };
     } else {
       console.log("Video is playing already..."); 
     }
  } else {
     console.log(" Stopping .... v_"+id);
     splayer["v_"+id].pause();
     document.getElementById(id).style.display="none";
  }
}

 var player = document.getElementById("v");
 
function ChangeHarry(){
    console.log("Playing Harry Potter.... ");
    document.getElementById("vsrc_main").src = "http://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/teleportme/videos/HarryPotterClip.mp4";
    player.load();
    player.play();
    drawVideo(context, player, canvas.width, canvas.height);
}

function ChangeQueen(){
  console.log("Playing Queen of the South ... ");
  player.pause();
  document.getElementById("vsrc_main").src="http://96.71.39.58/queen0.mp4";
  player.load();
  player.play();
  // drawVideo(context, player, canvas.width, canvas.height);
}

setTimeout(function() {
       showIt ("first", "https://mediamplify.com/teleport/iwantharry.mp4", "none");
       setTimeout(ChangeHarry, 6000);
     } , 2000 );

setTimeout(function() { 
      showIt ("first", "https://mediamplify.com/teleport/iwantharry.mp4",  "block"); 
}, 8000 ); 

setTimeout(showIt, 5000, "second", "http://96.71.39.58/live/pablo.m3u8", "none");
setTimeout(showIt, 6000, "third",  "http://96.71.39.58/live/gus.m3u8", "none");
console.log("Starting changing stuff"); 

setTimeout(function() {
            console.log("Preeping to switch to Queen of the South" ); 
            showIt ("first", "https://mediamplify.com/teleport/iwantqueen.mp4", "none"); 
          }, 13000);  

setTimeout(showIt, 15000, "third",  "http://96.71.39.58/live/pablo.m3u8", "none"); 
setTimeout(showIt, 15010, "second", "http://96.71.39.58/live/gus.m3u8" ,  "none"); 

// setTimeout(showIt, 20000, "third", "http://96.71.39.58/live/gus.m3u8", "none"); 
setTimeout(function() { 
            console.log("Queen of the South");
            ChangeQueen();                        
            showIt("first", "", "block");
           }, 19000); 



function fbProfile() {
    var x = document.getElementById("fb-profile");
    if (x.style.display === "none") {
        x.style.display = "block";
    } else {
        x.style.display = "none";
    }
}

function drawVideo(context, video, width, height) {         
   context.drawImage(video, 0, 0, width, height); // draws current video frame to canvas     
   var delay = 100; // milliseconds delay for slowing framerate
   setTimeout(drawVideo, delay, context, video, width, height); // recursively calls drawVideo() again after delay
}