• by Joe Mandese , Yesterday

The jury in a suit brought by Nielsen against audience measurement startup HyphaMetrics found it not guilty of infringing on two of Nielsen's patents.

The decision comes a year after a third patent infringement claim was previously dismissed.

Nielsen said it is considering an appeal, but HyphaMetrics CEO and Co-Founder Joanna Drews says the decision frees the company to begin expanding the rollout of its fledgling panel-based media-measurement service at a time when a number of "alternative currencies" have entered a U.S. audience-measurement marketplace long dominated by Nielsen.

“HyphaMetrics’ historic lawsuit victory against Nielsen is a monumental win for consumers and the entire media ecosystem," Drews said following the jury's verdict. "We are thrilled that the jury recognized Nielsen's allegations were baseless and predatory, and that HyphaMetrics’ single-source data stream is a proprietary solution that will revolutionize media measurement."

“We filed this suit because the product that HyphaMetrics marketed, promised, and said it sold is something we believed infringed Nielsen’s patents," Nielsen said in a statement, noting: "As the trial evolved, we were surprised to learn that HyphaMetrics has no actual product, no data for sale, and no plans to use AI-enabled content recognition technology now or in the future. We imagine that the clients who signed up for the product that HyphaMetrics marketed will be interested and surprised to learn this as well. We are reviewing the record and considering an appeal.”

HyphaMetrics has been on record acknowledging that it still is early stage and has been working on a proof-of-concept involving various technologies, including newer ones than what were covered in the previous patent suits.

In fact, the newest version of its technology utilizes an adaptive approach that applies unique AI and machine-learning algorithms to identify audiences differently on linear, streaming and digital platforms.

HyphaMetrics' Drews says the company currently has a panel of about 50 households, but plans to scale it to 5,000 between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.