The patents in question cover some critical behind-the-scenes tech that helps keep virtual machines running smoothly, according to the lawsuit filed in a California federal court.

Video streaming giant Netflix Inc. is suing Broadcom Inc. over virtual machine patents owned by the company’s subsidiary VMware Inc. According to the lawsuit filed with a California federal court by Netflix Monday, the company said VMware’s cloud software infringes on five patents related to virtual machines.

Netflix has filed a lawsuit against Broadcom. According to the streaming service, VMware infringes on virtual machine patents. Netflix claims to have

Netflix is suing Broadcom over patent infringement a few years after Broadcom sued Netflix for similar reasons.

Alleging patent infringement connected to virtual machine operations, Netflix ( NFLX, Financials) has sued Broadcom's ( AVGO, Financials) VMware. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit focuses on allegations that VMware's vSphere program violates Netflix's technology.

Netflix sued Broadcom in California federal court on Monday, accusing the chipmaker's cloud computing subsidiary VMware of violating its patent rights in "virtual machines" that run another computer's operating software on a host computer.

Netflix claims Broadcom's subsidiary VMware is in violation of five patents It claims VMware knew it was violating patents for more than a decade Netflix is now demanding VMware pays for damages caused Video streaming behemoth Netflix is suing Broadcom over virtual machine (VM) patents.