United States. The lawsuit filed by Alarm.com against Vivint Smart Home claims that its smart home platform would be violating 15 patents registered in North American territory.
The 76-page-long lawsuit alleges violations by Vivint Doorbell Camera, Doorbell Camera Pro, Outdoor Camera Pro, Indoor Camera, Car Guard, SkyControl Panel and Smart Hub Panel to patents previously filed by Alarm.com.
This document was filed with ICN Acquisition in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, on January 4 of this year, as Case No. 2:23-cv-00004. The lawsuit demands for the benefit of Alarm.com the payment of a continuing royalty (for an amount that is undetermined), the sum of three times the amount of actual damages, a jury trial and attorneys' fees.
Demand Details
A crucial point in this legal struggle, according to Alarm.com's lawsuit, is that both companies had already worked together and this gave Vivint knowledge of private business information that it would be using for its economic benefit.
The document says that in 2007 Vivint became an authorized distributor of Alarm.com, at which time it began the sale of security and smart home packages, using the Backedn platform of Alarm.com, this proximity made Vivint a very important distributor of Alarm.com and, therefore, could learn of trade secrets and other confidential information
In 2014, Vivint launched its own platform initially dubbed Vivint Sky and then renamed simply as Vivint Smart Home. In addition, the document states that Vivint has a long history of misappropriating Alarm.com technology and that it has continued to copy its innovations and incorporate them into Vivint Backend.
The lawsuit claims that much of Vivint's success is due to Alarm.com sharing its proprietary technology and trade secrets in 2009 to allow Vivint to launch its Go! Control.
The document asserts that Vivint began secretly developing a backend and because it used Alarm.com technology, to enter the market it needed to obtain a license for the patents used, in addition to an agreement that Alarm.com would not sue for misappropriation of intellectual property. Then, in late 2013 Vivint entered into a licensing agreement with Alarm.com, which gave Vivint a license for Alarm.com's existing patents and certain subsequently issued patents, in exchange for a payment for 'licensing fees', but this agreed payment was suspended in 2022.
For the alleged patent violations, the lawsuit states that Alarm.com has been harmed and will continue to suffer damages in the future. In addition, it indicates that it is entitled to recover damages, including in the form of loss of profits and/or a reasonable royalty sustained as a result of Vivint's wrongful acts.
Other background of Vivint
This would not be the first time something like this has happened, in October of last year Fractus, a research and development company located in Barcelona, sued Vivint, as well as the company ADT, for the violation of some of its patents registered in the United States on internal antenna technology for security systems.
