EchoStar (now known as DISH Network Corporation) was dealt yet another blow in its ongoing patent battle with Tivo as the U.S. Appeals Court ruled against them. The dispute involves EchoStar’s alleged infringement of Tivo’s TimeWarp patent, which allows users to record one program while watching another. Tivo applied for the patent in 1998, and it was granted in 2001.
In 2004 Tivo successfully sued EchoStar for its Dish Network DVR, which provided very similar functionality to Tivo’s product. EchoStar was ordered to pay Tivo $73.9M in damages. The company has subsequently appealed the ruling a number of times, but has not been successful in getting it overturned.
The Dish Network has advised customers that the latest rulings will have no effect on their DVR service, stating that they have deployed “next-generation DVR software” that will not infringe on Tivo’s patent. The company has also declared that it intends to appeal the latest ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dish has a lot more lawyer money than TiVo, and it is going to drag this thing out as long as it can.
Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection was the first site to report the news.
Would love to see Tivo picked up by anyone but blockbuster. Great product, great brand. Amazon, comcast, netflix, and probably others would be good candidates.
Off-topic:
Hi Jason,
Sorry of this is rude, but I missed the post introducing who you are, and how you have come to write for TC. Further, you are not on the about page. Care to point this long-time, uninformed reader toward further info?
P.S. Note the typos on lines 3/4, “denied ruled…”.
If in fact Dish’s DVR didn’t have the ability to record something while watching another program, it’d be practically useless. Still, Tivo paved the way for the device in general so you have to give them credit.
http://www.miscgarbage.com
@Blue, credit doesn’t pay the bills
@nobosh: Well that’s what the lawsuit is for
And, how does this effect the web world?
@jenkins, Lemme splain: The web is currently used to distribute all sorts of content, and Tivo is used to distribute premium content. Because they use TCP/IP technology (you may be familiar that is the same thing in use on “the web”) to achieve most of their value, Tivo can be considered very much a part of the “web world”. Eventually, “TV” and “the web” become indistinguishable, leaving Tivo’s patents relevant to anyone that wants to intelligently distribute premium technology.
jason, are you a guess blogger?
Thanks — after jumping through that many “what if’s” I guess I can now say that Tivo is new fodder for TC!
i think this is fair..
yeah… all for the money and fame~
Patents are supposed to be “non-obvious”. This is just about as obvious as it gets.
It is a shame to see Tivo stoop like this, but they don’t have a lot of choice, they have been continually stomped on by the big boys despite their vastly superior product.
@Frank and BlueMoose,
Hi, I’m the new guy. We’re not sure if I’ll be here permanently, you’ll see an intro post if I get to stay. Please note my impressive photoshop skills.
Thanks for the typo catch, Frank.
@Jason, As long as you are analytical, *we* won’t let your stint be tentative. Welcome aboard. Yeah, pshop, very impressive. I’m not normally a grammar natzi, it was just glaring. So far, so good.
it’d be practically useless
Amazon, comcast, netflix, and probably others would be good candidates.???ah …
I read EchoStar says it will go to US Supreme Court over TiVo case.
Tivo was so ahead of the curve that they deserve something for being first to market. DVRs have become such commodities now that Tivo needs to do something to profit from its brand.
What would home media be without Tivo. Now, if we could just get a good product that ties together high quality tv, movie downloads, and home computer networking, I’d be a happy man.
Tivo was first to market, had the best technology, and terrific intellectual property. As a startup venture, this is as much as you could hope for. So why the heck are we watching this company struggling to keep it’s head above water and needing court rulings to put money in the bank?
I don’t know what I would do without both Tivo and EchoStar.
Recording one program while watching another, I seem to remember doing this with my VCR back in 1987 (it was probably possible before then, but 6 was about the age I started to be able to program the VCR better than my parents). Can we say prior art? Granted the recording medium is different but I do believe that simply applying an idea to a different technology has been thrown out before.