Netflix lawsuit sues VMware over virtual machine patents

• Netflix claims Broadcom's subsidiary VMware is in violation of five patents
• It claims VMware knew it was violating patents for more than a decade
• Netflix is now demanding VMware pays for damages caused

Video streaming behemoth Netflix is suing Broadcom over virtual machine (VM) patents.

According to the lawsuit, filed with a California federal court, Broadcom’s subsidiary VMware is in violation of five different patent rights, including the rights for “424 Patent”, “707 Patent”, “891 Patent”, “893 Patent”, and “122 Patent”.

These cover the various aspects of operating virtual machines. Three discuss CPU usage in virtual machines, and two discuss starting up at least one virtual machine in a physical machine by a load balancer.

Deliberate infringment

“Broadcom and VMware, jointly and severally, have infringed, and continue to infringe, at least Claim 1 of the ’424 Patent, either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents, by making, using ...