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Commitments and Contingencies
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2017
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies
Commitments and Contingencies
Redeemable Subsidiary Preferred Stock
As of September 30, 2017, the fair value of the NBCUniversal Enterprise redeemable subsidiary preferred stock was $756 million. The estimated fair value is based on Level 2 inputs that use pricing models whose inputs are derived primarily from or corroborated by observable market data through correlation or other means for substantially the full term of the financial instrument.
Contingencies
We were a defendant in a lawsuit filed in December 2011 by Sprint Communications Company L.P. (“Sprint”) in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. Sprint’s initial complaint alleged that Comcast Digital Voice and XFINITY Voice infringe twelve Sprint patents covering various aspects of a telecommunications system. In March 2015, Sprint withdrew its allegations of infringement for two of the patents. In December 2016, the Court granted summary judgment for us with respect to non-infringement on one of the patents and granted summary judgment for Sprint on one of the patents as to infringement with respect to some but not all of our accused telecommunications systems but not as to the patent’s validity. In January 2017, the Court entered judgment in favor of us on Sprint’s claims for infringement of two of the patents. In March 2017, Sprint indicated that it would not proceed to trial on three of the patents. Trial with respect to the four remaining patents, including the patent for which the Court granted partial summary judgment to Sprint, was set to begin on October 23, 2017. On October 16, 2017, the parties entered into a settlement agreement which dismisses all claims and resolves the parties’ disputes asserted in the matters described above, as well as in all other outstanding patent litigation matters between the parties, for a payment to Sprint and certain contractual rights. In connection therewith, we recorded a charge of $250 million in the third quarter of 2017.
We also are a defendant in several unrelated lawsuits claiming infringement of various patents relating to various aspects of our businesses. In certain of these cases, other industry participants are also defendants, and also in certain of these cases, we expect that any potential liability would be in part or in whole the responsibility of our equipment and technology vendors under applicable contractual indemnification provisions. In addition, we are subject to other legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of our business. While the amount of ultimate liability with respect to such actions is not expected to materially affect our results of operations, cash flows or financial position, any litigation resulting from any such legal proceedings or claims could be time-consuming and injure our reputation.