WWE Sued By ‘Patent Trolls’ Over WWE Network

WWE has been sued by a company alleging that they infringed on a patent to create the WWE Network. Forbes reports that Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems has filed a lawsuit against the company in regard to Rothschild’s patent that covers the basic function of subscription streaming video services.

The report notes that Rothschild are “patent trolls,” aka people who use the US Patent and Trademark Office’s habit of granting ill-defined patents on the basis of declarations which allow the potential patent holder to claim they were the first to come up with it without any evidence. They then threaten lawsuits against companies and that’s how they run a profit.

Forbes notes that Rothschild are infamous for this tactic. The patent in question was profiled by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as their “Stupid Patent of the Month” which pointed out that the patent was filed in 2011, well after the concept of streaming video subscription services was around. (Netflix, hardly the first, launched their subscrptions streaming service in 2007.) They also noted that RBDS has not engaged “in any business other than patent litigation” and has sued 25 companies from startup companies up to Disney.

WWE has yet to comment on the lawsuit.