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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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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.
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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.
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Re: EchoStar Sued Over TiVo Patent
Hmmm.... I haven't read it yet, but here's a link to the relevant Tivo patent...
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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.
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