IP Law Daily, PATENT—D. Del.: Netflix must face infringement claims involving video caching and streaming patents, (Nov 10, 2026)

By Ravindra Kumar Singh, B.L.

Although the video streaming patents claimed abstract ideas, their allegedly unconventional caching arrangements supplied sufficient inventive concepts to withstand dismissal.

Netflix, Inc. must defend claims that its streaming platform infringes three patents covering distributed video caching and partial video pre-fetching technologies, after a federal district court in Delaware rejected its challenge to patent eligibility and the sufficiency of the infringement allegations. The court determined that the asserted claims were directed to abstract ideas involving the retrieval and transmission of data but found that patent owner Tir Technologies Limited had sufficiently alleged inventive concepts based on unconventional arrangements of conventional computer components. Further, the court found that Tir Technologies plausibly alleged direct, induced, and willful infringement through Netflix’s streaming applications and supporting infrastructure (Tir Technologies Ltd. v. Netflix, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-00056-JCG (D. Del. Nov. 9, 2026)).

Video caching patents. Tir Technologies, an Irish company headquartered in Dublin, owns U.S. Patent Nos. 9,800,633 (the ’633 patent), 10,484,442 (the ’442 patent), and 10,375,444 (the ’444 patent). The first two patents, titled “Just-in-Time Distributed Video Cache,” concern optimizing video delivery through distributed caching arrangements. They describe systems in which a server stores a preview of an optimized video file and uses an identification key to locate additional segments on other servers, allowing the segments to be combined and streamed without repeated transcoding. The ’444 patent, titled “Partial Video Pre-Fetch,” addresses playback delays by storing an initial video segment locally while retrieving subsequent portions over a network and adjusting their bitrate according to available bandwidth.

Tir Technologies filed suit in January 2026 and amended its complaint in April, alleging that Netflix infringed the patents through its streaming platform, including software operating on Amazon Web Services servers, application programming interface (API) backend services, and applications installed on customer devices. The company asserted direct, induced, and willful infringement. Netflix sought dismissal, arguing that the patents claimed ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and that the infringement allegations were insufficient.

Distributed caching claims. Applying the two-step framework established in Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, 573 U.S. 208 (2014), the court treated claim 1 of the ’633 patent as representative of both the ’633 and ’442 patents because they shared a common specification and concerned substantially similar subject matter.

The representative claim involved receiving a video optimization request, identifying a cached preview, querying a database for matching reference keys, locating additional video segments, combining them, and streaming the resulting file. The court characterized these operations as retrieving and transmitting data over a network, an abstract idea under the first Alice step.

Tir Technologies argued that the claims addressed the technical problem of coordinating optimized video content across multiple servers. However, relying on GoTV Streaming, LLC v. Netflix, Inc., 166 F.4th 1053 (Fed. Cir. 2026), the court concluded that the identification keys and cache database did not themselves improve ordinary computer or network operations.

Nevertheless, the claims survived the second Alice step. Although their individual components could be conventional, Tir Technologies sufficiently alleged that their particular arrangement enabled optimized video files to be retrieved and streamed without repeated transcoding. The court found that this alleged unconventional improvement was reflected in the claims and was not contradicted by the patent specifications.

Partial video pre-fetching patent. The court reached a similar conclusion regarding the ’444 patent, which claimed a method of pre-fetching an initial video segment, storing it locally, and retrieving subsequent segments during playback while adjusting transmission quality based on network conditions.

The court found that these operations were directed to the abstract idea of retrieving and presenting data. Unlike the specific technological improvements recognized in Packet Intelligence LLC v. NetScout Systems, Inc., 965 F.3d 1299 (Fed. Cir. 2020), the ’444 patent relied on ordinary computer and networking functions.

However, the amended complaint sufficiently alleged an inventive concept arising from the particular combination of caching the initial video portion and streaming subsequent portions. According to Tir Technologies, this arrangement enabled immediate playback without consuming substantial network bandwidth. Because the alleged improvement appeared in the claims and was supported by the specification, dismissal under Section 101 was unwarranted.

Direct infringement. Netflix separately challenged the infringement allegations concerning the ’633 and ’442 patents, arguing that their claims required video segments to be stitched together before streaming, whereas Tir Technologies’ claim charts described stitching after transmission to the client device.

The court found the allegations sufficient. Tir Technologies described Netflix’s use of Moving Picture Experts Group-Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (MPEG-DASH), which divides videos into segments encoded at different bitrates and resolutions. Its claim charts alleged that Netflix applications downloaded appropriate segments, combined them on the client device, and streamed the combined content through the device’s playback capabilities. Accepting those allegations as true, the court could reasonably infer that the claimed stitching preceded streaming.

The court also rejected Netflix’s challenge concerning the ’444 patent. Tir Technologies alleged that Netflix used predictive caching to store an initial video segment locally while retrieving subsequent segments from content servers, including Netflix Open Connect Appliances. These allegations sufficiently identified the claimed embedded media file and supported an inference that only the initial portion was stored in the local cache. The direct infringement claims involving all three patents therefore survived.

Induced and willful infringement. Netflix argued that Tir Technologies failed to establish the knowledge and specific intent required for induced infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b). The court disagreed, explaining that an original complaint identifying the asserted patents and allegedly infringing conduct could provide the knowledge necessary to support post-suit inducement allegations when followed by an amended complaint.

Tir Technologies’ original complaint identified all three patents and included claim charts describing the alleged infringement. The amended complaint further alleged that Netflix continued encouraging customers to use the accused functionality through promotional materials, installation instructions, and user guides despite receiving notice of the patents. These allegations supported a plausible inference of knowing inducement.

Similarly, the court allowed the willful infringement claims to proceed. Citing Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc., 579 U.S. 93 (2016), it recognized that enhanced damages may be available for particularly egregious infringement. Tir Technologies limited its willfulness allegations to conduct occurring after Netflix received the original complaint. The court found sufficient allegations that Netflix knew of the patents and continued the allegedly infringing activities despite that knowledge.

Thus, the court denied Netflix’s motion in its entirety, preserving Tir Technologies’ direct, induced, and willful infringement claims involving all three patents.

The Case is No. 1:26-cv-00056-JCG.

Judge: Choe-Groves, J.

Attorneys: Stephen B. Brauerman (Bayard, P.A.) for Tir Technologies Ltd. Kelly E. Farnan (Richards, Layton & Finger, PA) for Netflix, Inc.

Companies: Tir Technologies Ltd.; Netflix, Inc.

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