Much of the trade press have not yet caught wind of an extraordinary yet familiar dispute between DirecTV and Synamedia in the US, which sees the fraught satellite TV operator attempt to strongarm itself a free pass for Synamedia’s legacy conditional access technology (from the NDS days), without paying a dime (for the second time). In a counter-complaint filed in a California court this week, DirecTV claims it has rights to a perpetual license to Synamedia’s intellectual property. The pay TV company has requested that an injunction be issued against Synamedia to protect its business—which fundamentally relies on conditional access to distribute video content—from immediate harm. Succinctly, DirecTV took issue with the terms proposed in the contract extension to continue…