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I Want My M(S)TV
from the good-old-microsoft dept
theodp writes "Quiz time. True or false: Microsoft Granted Patent for Creating Insecure Software? True or false: Microsoft Seeks Patent for Tuning in Seinfeld?" Okay, it's not quite that bad, but the patent does appear to be a slightly modified electronic programming guide, designed to work with video-on-demand applications over the internet. It seems fairly obvious to me (why wouldn't you do it this way?), but I guess that's why I'm not a patent examiner.
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Because Murdoch owns the other one...
Back in the early 90's I was a Business Development Manager for MS's early interactive TV efforts. The biggest thing we worried about was how to control the TV equivalent of the "desktop", i.e. the program guide. One small problem... TV Guide (now a Murdoch property) had/has almost all of the patents related to program guides locked up, and extorts a nice healthy amount of money from every cable system technology provider (mostly set-top box guys, TiVo, Replay, et al). MS is trying to play a defensive strategy and carve out *something* they can call their own in this space, without having to write checks to anyone.
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