TiVo's 'Big Win' Over Dish On Patents Looking Less And Less Solid, As Patent Office Rejects Patent Claims
from the oops dept
Early on TiVo had won pretty much of all of its patent battles with EchoStar over its DVR technology, perhaps helped along by a bit of bull buying in Texas. We had noted, however, that the USPTO had expressed concerns over the validity of the patents, and we wondered why the court case would move forward while the patents themselves might be rejected by the Patent Office. But, the case did go forward, and while TiVo initially won at the appeals court level (which made it so happy that it sued others and demanded ridiculous sums from EchoStar), things haven't been looking quite so good lately.Last month, the appeals court vacated the earlier decision, and agreed to rehear the case. And, now, it turns out that the USPTO has rejected two patent claims that were a key part of this fight. Of course, as TiVo is quick to point out, this isn't the end of the review process, but it certainly raises serious questions about the validity of the patents TiVo is basing its whole strategy on.
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Possible solution to all this garbage litigation
2. Use the money savings to hire engineers, artists, writers, thinkers, inventors et cetera and build awesome products and services that people clamor to consume.
In a system that was designed and built by lawyers, is it any wonder that we see corporations chasing their own tails? Not unlike the banking industry, it's the insiders and those who are demonspawn of those institutions that make all the money.
They have created the ultimate money machines -- and we pay the bills.
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A smile on mike's face
But I read that Google bought up a startup that has a bunch of ex-TiVo developers a few weeks ago. So knowing this, a death of TiVo must make Mike happy, and give him a sort of perverted self-satisfaction.
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Re: A smile on mike's face
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Re: A smile on mike's face
Huh? Actually, I'm a fan of TiVo and hope they survive. I just don't want to see them abusing patent law to do so. I wish they had been smarter about their business model from the beginning, but they made their choices...
Why would I want to root for the "death of TiVo"? That makes no sense...
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Re: Re: A smile on mike's face
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Re: Re: Re: A smile on mike's face
- Wrong. And the Patent Office has rejected the claims.
"patents only seem to be used to protect incumbents"
- Wrong again. I don't think I need to cite the multitude of examples.
"... and not innovators"
- Software should not be subject to patent protection.
- Seems that tivo has fallen into that chasm where competition is replaced by litigation.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: A smile on mike's face
I would've loved to have seen a real competition in DVRs without cable companies putting their thumb on the scales. There wasn't. There isn't.
Monopoly made competition moot, and TiVo turned to litigation instead.
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Sorry they are going down, but it is their own pricing model that did them in
I never bought one because I could never stomach their pricing model for services. Their monthly fees were excessive; the same information could be legally obtained for a few dollars a year. Furthermore, they were selling viewing and search data which made it a profit center for the company, even if they hadn't sold subscriptions.
If they had charged more for the initial hardware and then had a low annual subscription fee I probably would have had a Tivo on every set in the house. As it was, the high monthly fee made me reluctant to buy even one.
I think this is another case where a content provider over estimates the price people are pay for their information. It's not that the information isn't valuable, it comes down to what customers are willing to pay.
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Hold your nose...the PTO most always rejects claims. Then hold the phone...seldom does the patentee lose all claims and in some cases end up with more and better claims as you are allowed to add claims in reexam. This may come back to haunt the requestor and the industry.
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Re:
- What, exactly, is "second hand code" ?
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Patents were confirmed. Again.
I think this will be the 3rd, 4th or 5th time the patents are challenged. So far all the software claims have been upheld, including in September 2010 review following Dish/Echostar's last challenge.
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Re: Patents were confirmed. Again.
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