X Corp, Adeia settle legal fight over digital-media patents

June 7 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's X Corp has resolved a lawsuit against technology licensing company Adeia (ADEA.O) stemming from a dispute over a patent-licensing agreement, according to a joint filing on Friday in California federal court.

X and Adeia told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that they had reached a settlement in principle on Tuesday and asked to pause the case while they finalize it.

Attorneys and spokespeople for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment and more information about the settlement.

Adeia was the intellectual-property licensing unit of TiVo owner Xperi (XPER.N) before Xperi was spun off into an independent company last year.

X, the social-media company formerly known as Twitter, sued Adeia last year, seeking a declaration that it did not infringe Adeia patents related to content recommendations, digital advertising, social-media integration and other technology. It told the court that it was suing to head off an expected Adeia patent-infringement lawsuit following the breakdown of their licensing agreement.

According to the complaint, Adeia's predecessors TiVo and Rovi agreed to license their patents to Twitter in 2019. The lawsuit said that Adeia sued X in California state court in August 2023 for allegedly breaching their contract.

X said in its November complaint that it was terminating the agreement because Adeia's lawsuit improperly revealed confidential information about the contract, including that X pays a licensing fee of $3 million per year.

Adeia asked the court in January to dismiss X's lawsuit, calling X's court claims a "strategic response" to Adeia's attempt to collect unpaid royalties.

The case is X Corp v. Adeia Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:23-cv-06151.