TiVo has lobbed yet another lawsuit at Comcast, alleging that the cable operator is infringing on six patents that, it claims, have linkages to Comcast-supplied DVR and non-DVR set-top box devices and broadband gateways and various services and apps that run on them.

This latest lawsuit, filed today by Rovi Guides Inc. with the US District Court, Central District of California, also takes aim at some specific elements tied to Comcast's X1 platform. The list includes the X1 Sports App, which provides on-screen access to real-time stats from sporting events; multi-room DVR features; Comcast's set-top box integrations of apps like YouTube, Netflix and Pandora; and some other cloud-powered X1 services.

According to a copy of the complaint obtained by Light Reading, here's a snapshot of the patents asserted by Rovi/TiVo in this round:

Piling on the litigation
This latest suit is one in a string filed by TiVo/Rovi against Comcast, whose license with TiVo expired on March 31, 2016.

In January, TiVo/Rovi fired a lawsuit against Comcast in the same court alleging that the MSO was infringing on eight other patents describing "advanced" DVR functions, such as cloud/network recording and other whole-home DVR capabilities.

Comcast, meanwhile, has already disabled a remote recording feature for X1 after an International Trade Commission ruling came down in favor of TiVo. TiVo and Comcast are still at odds at the ITC over multiple patents and are battling in a set of other district court cases.

TiVo fired off this latest suit as the company continues to pursue strategic alternatives that could lead to a sale of assets or the splitting of the company into two -- its products business, and its licensing and intellectual property business. The absence of a deal with Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, represents a significant overhang on TiVo's licensing business.

TiVo continues to call litigation against Comcast a "last resort," but said it remains "optimistic that Comcast will come to the table and pay the appropriate licensing fees," and follow along with the new deal that TiVo has cut with other major US providers, such as AT&T, Charter Communications, Dish Network and Verizon.

So far, Comcast hasn't blinked, believing that the Rovi/TiVo patents are outdated and that the technologies used for X1 were largely developed in-house.

"Rovi has in recent years deployed its increasingly obsolete patent portfolio in an unsuccessful litigation campaign seeking to charge Comcast and our customers for technology that Rovi did not invent," a Comcast official said in an emailed statement. "Rovi launched this campaign in April 2016 by asserting infringement of 15 patents - 14 of which have been held to be invalid and/or not infringed by Comcast, or have been withdrawn by Rovi. While we haven't had an opportunity to review Rovi's latest complaint, we will continue to defend ourselves against allegations we determine to be meritless."

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading