Ashok Ramani

Ramani is lead trial counsel in the latest round of Comcast Corp.’s longstanding patent war with TiVo Inc. over the licensing rights to various interactive program guide systems and digital video recording functions.

The attorney, who leads Davis Polk & Wardwell’s IP litigation practice, will defend Comcast against an eight-patent case filed in in the Central District of California in January by TiVo’s Rovi division. Rovi Guides Inc. v. Comcast Corp. et al., 19-CV275 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 14, 2019).

Over the past three years, Rovi has asserted more than 20 patents in its fight to get Comcast to renew its licensing deal for technology that enables viewers to find and record television programs.

Rovi charges licensing fees to many of the top pay-TV providers in North America. But, in 2016, Comcast decided to cancel its subscription to what the company has called an “increasingly obsolete patent portfolio.”

Ramani tried a related case against Rovi before the U.S. International Trade Commission in October. An administrative law judge is scheduled to rule on that case in June. Certain Digital Video Receivers and Hardware and Software Components Thereof, 337-TA-1103 (ITC, filed Feb. 8, 2018).

Although the lawyer only joined Davis Polk last year, he was already well acquainted with Rovi, against whom he had tried cases as a partner with Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP. Ramani defended Netflix Inc. in a pair of similar patent infringement suits when Rovi tried to extend some of its patents into the “over-the-top” video-streaming space, Ramani said.

“It’s a delight to defend a client against Rovi yet again,” he said, likening the circumstances to the time loop in the film “Groundhog Day.” “It seems like that’s been a constant in my career this entire decade.”

The New York-born attorney, who enjoys spending his free time snowboarding and backpacking with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, said he is perpetually fascinated by the cutting-edge technologies that lie at the crux of his cases.

“I’m fortunate to have had complex challenges to take on for clients,” Ramani said. “The way that I’ve always approached them is to view each one as a new puzzle. You’ve got to start at the very beginning, and not simply come up with a basic protocol or template and apply that in every case.”

— Mark Armao