EchoStar Sued Over TiVo Patent

from the No-Justice dept

It seems like TiVo is really in trouble. First, people are suggesting that its service needs to be regulated. Now, TiVo is suing EchoStar out of desperation. According to their CEO, TiVo's patent for letting people watch TV while recording another channel needs to be aggressively protected. So instead of concentrating on making their service better, they're suing other DVR services. Seems to me that a TiVo competitor could use a picture-in-picture feature that predates TiVo to circumvent the patent.
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  • identicon
    Dave Locke, 6 Jan 2004 @ 8:47am

    Re: EchoStar Sued Over TiVo Patent

    > According to their CEO, TiVo's patent for letting people watch TV< BR>> while recording another channel needs to be aggressively
    > protected. ... Seems to me that a TiVo competitor could use a
    > picture-in-picture feature that predates TiVo to circumvent the
    > patent.
    Seems to me that for 2-1/2 decades people with VCRs have been
    watching one channel while recording another. Must be something
    more to their patent than merely that concept.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Greg, 6 Jan 2004 @ 3:41pm

    No Subject Given

    The articles imply that what's patented is the method Tivo uses to watch a program while recording another program. If that's the case, this is not one of those stupid business method patents.

    Frankly,, the only way I see Tivo and ReplayTV surviving in the long run is with patents; I can't see how they can compete with cable/satellite companies giving away boxes for free. The only other possibility I se is for Tivo to sell a DVR+ service, since software is really where Tivo still has a big lead.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    MFFIP, 11 Jun 2005 @ 11:39am

    DVR application

    MFFIP, Inc. announces the sale of a US Utility Patent Application designated DVR001. The disclosure includes innovations in the DVR field. Bids are being accepted on eBay, item number 5981167951.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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