Amazon wins patent fight with Rovi in appeals court

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rovi (NSQ:ROVI), which sells television guide programs to cable providers, lost a patent fight with Amazon.com (NSQ:AMZN) on Tuesday when an appeals court upheld a decision by a Delaware district court.

Rovi had accused Amazon of infringing on two patents, one which creates an electronic program guide on a television screen and another which allows a viewer to select and purchase a pay-per-view program.

In both patents, Judge Richard Andrews of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware narrowly defined what the "claims," or portions of patents, did in such a way that forced Rovi to drop its argument for infringement.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which specializes in patent appeals, agreed with the lower court.

Neither Rovi nor Amazon immediately responded to requests for comment and it was not immediately clear if Rovi would appeal the case further or drop it.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)