Netflix’s Defining Patents

Quinn McKush*

According to Forbes, Netflix has 260.28 million subscribers, cementing it as the most subscribed streaming service in the world.¹ Part of the reason why Netflix has remained so successful is because of its several innovations, many of which are patented. Many of the patents Netflix holds have become staples of the streaming service experience with competitors using similar innovations. These include a patent on Consent Receipt Management, the “Trick Play” of streaming media, and the menu display screen (or “carousel”).² According to CNET, Netflix is the “ultimate option for streaming entertainment because of its vast selection and user-friendly layout.”³

Before streaming services allowed consumers to watch a variety of video media at any time, Netflix made a name for itself through its DVD rental service. Competing with brick-and-mortar DVD rental stores, Netflix found its niche providing access to a large selection of DVDs from the comfort of your own home; provided you were willing to wait for your DVD to ship through the mail. Alongside the convenience of receiving DVDs through the mail, Netflix set itself apart by making the process easy for consumers. This is demonstrated by their envelopes on which they hold a patent. The “Mailing and Response Envelope” is designed to deliver a fragile item from the sender to the recipient and from the recipient back to the sender, protecting the item during transport.⁴ Not only does the Mailing and Response Envelope protect the DVD from damage, but it is also nearly the same size as the DVD itself. This sleek method of delivering DVDs coupled with its user-friendly movie ordering process, where users were able to make a queue to receive different movies as they became available, made Netflix a household name in the early 2000’s.⁵

After dominating the DVD rental market, Netflix stepped into new territory in 2007 with “Video on Demand”.⁶ This service looked closer to the streaming we have today, but with severe limitations in selection and quality. It also limited the number of streaming hours per customer, charging $17.99 for just eighteen hours of content.⁷ As the streaming service evolved, so did its competition. Netflix set itself apart due to a variety of patents on features integral to the website’s success. A particularly notable patent from the “Video on Demand” era of Netflix is the “Trick Play of Streaming Media”.⁸ This “Trick Play” makes Netflix streaming more efficient and requires less processing power.⁹ To use less power, the stream stores a series of still images to play sequentially when rewinding or fast forwarding.¹⁰ This innovation gives the illusion that Netflix is doing a process similar to fast playback during fast forward or fast rewind, a feature commonplace on DVD Players.¹¹ Fast playback involves “real-time generation . . . which requires additional processing power by the media player.”¹² While the goal of the “Trick Play” method is to save processing power, another intention of the innovation is to allow consumers to rewind and fast forward frame by frame “without feeling pressure to focus intently on the rapidly moving picture . . . .”¹³ A byproduct of the fast forward and fast rewind feature of old DVD and VHS players was that users had to closely monitor the display to press play at the right time. Netflix’s innovation allows users to be precise with their fast forward and rewind, eliminating the anxiety of selecting the right time.

In the modern streaming era, Netflix faces much more competition from other streaming services. Due to the competition between services, consumers are faced with a difficult decision: picking a streaming service. According to Forbes, original content, new content every few weeks, access to older titles, and the ability to watch content anywhere, were prime considerations for consumers picking a streaming service.¹⁴ Nowhere in this list of important features is the user interface or experience. Yet, Netflix continues to innovate to better its user experience through patents. One of Netflix’s influential behind-the-scenes patents focuses on “Consent Receipt Management.”¹⁵ This patent describes the method for how Netflix tracks personal data of users, with particular focus on security.¹⁶ This patent aims to protect Netflix’s user data from data leaks.¹⁷ Another patent commonly associated with Netflix is the “Display Screen.”¹⁸ This feature, colloquially called the “carousel”, sits at the forefront of Netflix’s user interface and gives the illusion that all of the content you could scroll through is rotating on a carousel in front of you in real time. Simone Brunozzi at Medium aptly called this the “illusion of an infinite movie shelf.”¹⁹ The illusion is complete when you return to the content you saw first in the rotation. While consumers may not prioritize user experience when considering which streaming service to subscribe to, Netflix’s commitment to innovation in consumer data protection and to improving its user interface has helped to make it the “ultimate option for streaming entertainment” for many.²⁰

* Quinn McKush, J.D. Candidate, University of St. Thomas School of Law Class of 2026 (Associate Editor).

1. Ana Durrani, Top Streaming Statistics in 2024, Forbes HOME (Aug. 15, 2024, 3:20 PM), https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/internet/streaming-stats/ [https://perma.cc/6JZY-82M6]. ↩︎
2. GreyB, Netflix Patents – Insights & Stats (Updated 2024), Insights (July 30, 2024), https://insights.greyb.com/netflix-patents/ [https://perma.cc/AUZ3-W3GM]; U.S. Patent No. 11,200,341 (filed July 8, 2020); U.S. Patent No. 8,365,235 B2 (filed Sept. 5, 2008); U.S. Patent No. D809,555 (filed Feb. 10, 2017). ↩︎
3. Kourtnee Jackson & Brian Rosenzweig, Netflix Review, Our Top Choice in a Crowded Market, CNET (June 24, 2024, 12:18 PM PDT), https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/netflix-review-our-top-choice-in-crowded-market/ [https://perma.cc/RHE7-D9YG]. ↩︎
4. U.S. Patent No. 6,966,484 (filed Sept. 16, 2002). ↩︎
5. U.S. Patent No. 6,584,450 (filed Apr. 28, 2000). ↩︎
6. Siddhant Jain, History of Netflix – Founding, Model, Timeline, Milestones (2024 Updated), VdoCipher (July 21, 2024), https://www.vdocipher.com/blog/2017/06/netflix-revolution-part-1-history/#:~:text=Netflix%20put%20further%20pressure%20on,that%20common%20at%20the%20time [https://perma.cc/Y4EH-AGHV]. ↩︎
7. Id. ↩︎
8. U.S. Patent No. 8,365,235 B2 (filed Sept. 5, 2008). ↩︎
9. Id. at [57]. ↩︎
10. Id. at 2. ↩︎
11. See id. at 1. ↩︎
12. Id. ↩︎
13. Id. ↩︎
14. See Gary Drenik, Streaming Revolution: How Today’s Consumers are Changing the Game, Forbes (Apr. 30, 2024, 10:00 AM EDT), https://www.forbes.com/sites/garydrenik/2024/04/30/streaming-revolution-how-todays-consumers-are-changing-the-game/ [https://perma.cc/FS7R-49CU]. ↩︎
15. U.S. Patent No. 11,200,341 (filed July 8, 2020). ↩︎
16. Id. ↩︎
17. Id. ↩︎
18. U.S. Patent No. D809,555S (filed Feb. 10, 2017). ↩︎
19. Simone Brunozzi, Netflix and the Illusion of an Infinite Movie Shelf, Medium (Nov. 16, 2018), https://simon.medium.com/netflix-and-the-illusion-of-an-infinite-movie-shelf-a2f54ab24b81 [https://perma.cc/XA8J-CK3J]. ↩︎
20. Jackson & Rosenzweig, supra note 3. ↩︎