Netflix (NFLX, Financial) has filed a lawsuit against Broadcom (AVGO) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit alleges that VMware's vSphere virtualization platform, a Broadcom subsidiary, infringes on five Netflix patents related to virtual machine communication technologies.
This lawsuit is part of a larger legal battle between Netflix and Broadcom that began in 2018. Broadcom has accused Netflix of infringing its patents related to video streaming technology, with cases in California, Germany, and the Netherlands. A separate lawsuit filed by Broadcom against Netflix in the U.S. is scheduled for trial in June 2025.
As part of this extensive legal dispute, Broadcom acquired VMware for $69 billion last year. Netflix is seeking unspecified financial compensation in its lawsuit.