Rovi Corporation has entered into a patent license agreement with Funai, the manufacturer of LCD TVs.

Thanks to the pact, Funai will now have a license to the Rovi interactive program guide (IPG) and parental control patent portfolio.

"As more content continues to become available to consumers on their televisions, the guide will remain instrumental in helping them find the programming that is of interest to them," said Samir Armaly, senior vice president of intellectual property and licensing at Rovi, in a statement.

"We welcome Funai to our patent license program, an example of a CE manufacturer focused on bringing a high-quality digital entertainment experience to consumers," said Armaly.

Rovi Corporation says that it is focused on revolutionizing the digital entertainment landscape by delivering solutions that enable consumers to intuitively connect to new entertainment from many sources and locations.

The company also provides extensive entertainment discovery solutions for television, movies, music and photos to its customers in the consumer electronics, cable and satellite, entertainment and online distribution markets. These solutions, complemented by industry leading entertainment data, create the connections between people and technology, and enable them to discover and manage entertainment in an enjoyable form.

TechZone360 in February reported that Rovi has announced a free, mobile television listings iPad application for TV lovers.

Known as Rovi What’s On TV, the app is designed in a graphic-rich, magazine-style layout, and allows users to browse and search local TV listings for a 24-hour period.

The new application is available through APIs in the Rovi Media Cloud, enabling users to find detailed information and images from their favorite shows, movies and celebrities.

Rovi is making available this application in the iTunes store. The company points out that this fully connected app lets users share what they’re viewing with friends through Twitter and e-mail.

There are several things you can do with this application including browsing TV listings by time, channel or show line-up; finding similar shows from within the show detail page; and enjoying detailed cast and celebrity pages.

Users can also see what’s on TV and find when shows are airing within the next 24 hours; and check-in and share viewing plans with Twitter followers.