TikTok, rival Triller agree to drop Patent Dispute

Short-form video giant TikTok Inc and its rival Triller Inc have agreed to drop dueling patent lawsuits over their respective technology, according to filings in federal court in Northern California.

The companies asked the court on Monday to dismiss the cases without prejudice, which means they could still be refiled.

TikTok, Triller and their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Los Angeles-based Triller first sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd in Waco, Texas in 2020. It said TikTok's "Green Screen Video" feature infringed its patent by allowing users to synchronize multiple video takes with a single audio track.

Triller's lawsuit was moved to Oakland, California in 2021.

TikTok filed its own lawsuit against Triller in Northern California later in 2020, accusing it of infringing three patents related to downloading and using digital music.

Both companies had requested an unspecified amount of money damages and court orders to block the alleged infringement and denied in court filings that their technology infringed their rival's.

The cases had been paused for the companies' challenges to the validity of the patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Triller has appealed a decision by the USPTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board that parts of its patent are invalid. The board declined to review one TikTok patent, and is reviewing two others.

The cases are Triller Inc v. ByteDance Ltd, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 4:21-cv-05300, and ByteDance Ltd v. Triller Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 4:20-cv-07572.