ADT brings smart home patent suit against Vivint

  • July 6, 2021
  • Steve Rogerson

Security firm ADT has brought actions for patent infringement against Utah-based smart home company Vivint.

ADT has asked the US International Trade Commission and federal court to enforce its smart home technology patents.

Separate but related actions have been filed with the US International Trade Commission and in the US district court for the western district of Texas.

Vivint has introduced and promoted a series of products that ADT says infringe upon several of its patents. These patents cover ADT’s investments and innovations in smart home integration, data collection, and control panel functions and interfaces, among other capabilities and features. Specifically, according to the complaint, Vivint products including the Vivint Home Security System, SkyControl Panel and Vivint Smart Hub violate US patents 8,976,937 and 9,286,772, belonging to ADT.

“Vivint launched its SkyControl Panel and related products with the express desire, in the words of its former CEO, to control anything and everything inside the home,” said David Smail, ADT’s chief legal officer. “Apparently Vivint also meant by any means necessary.”

He said Vivint had infringed ADT’s patents covering, among other things, predictive analytics, detection and diagnostics, and user interfaces including voice control. This, he said, gave Vivint an unfair advantage in the smart home security and automation market.

“By defending its robust patent portfolio, ADT is determined to protect its employees, its customers, its products and its reputation,” said Smail. “We are asking the commission for an exclusion order prohibiting Vivint from importing products infringing on our patents, and we are asking the court for a finding of infringement along with appropriate damages, fees, and other relief.”

Vivint responded with the following statement: “On June 29, 2021, ADT filed a complaint against Vivint, a leading smart home company, in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas and a companion case with the US International Trade Commission claiming that Vivint infringed two ADT patents. Vivint believes the claims asserted are completely without merit and that the complaint is a reactionary countersuit to a patent infringement complaint Vivint had previously filed on February 25, 2021 against ADT in the US District Court for the District of Utah. Vivint’s complaint asserts that ADT infringes six Vivint patents and Vivint is continuing to prosecute its claims in that case. Vivint intends to vigorously defend against ADT’s allegations.”

ADT’s history of innovation in technology and services dates to 1874, when the company’s founder Edward Callahan – inventor of the stock ticker –applied telegraph technology to the challenges of home security, creating the first in-home call-box and residential security network.

ADT introduced the first interactive security system in 2010 and has developed and delivered other smart home technologies in the decade since.