TiVo sues EchoStar over DVR patent

[Bweiter]

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5135325.html

"The patent in question, which TiVo filed for in 1998, is described by the company as an "invention allowing the user to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is simultaneously watching or reviewing another program." TiVo has been awarded 40 patents and has more than 100 applications pending, according to the company."


Anyone see Snapstream as a target at some point?

[SHS]

Sound more like to me they describeding something along the line of PiP with only real diff is REC playback is done in REALtime as for simultaneously watching which a VCR can not do REALtime in tell the recording is done.
This part while reviewing another program I belive this has to do with Multi-Source which depend on how you hook up VCR.
Must likey patent in question from TiVo a viod.
All the above was all ready available for surveillance product long before there was ever TiVo

[TV Scheduler]

I wonder if I can get a patent for " a process allowing the user to walk while chewing gum"?

Bob

[bradpvr]

I'm sure M$ has already patented the idea...

[riekl]

SHS,

It is completely irrelevant if there was a way to do something before a patent was issued. So long as the use of the technology in question is not wide spread (which _NO ONE_ else had a dvr other then Tivo at the time of the patent) then the patent is valid it doesn't matter if you could have gotten the same functionality by stringing 5 aluminium cans together and connecting it to a telephone pole =)

Tivo's patent is valid as are a number of the others including their Season Pass functionality of which BTV very well may be in violation of.

[bradpvr]

Actually riekl,

Prior art is a _HUGE_ part of pantents.

A lot of patents get accepted right off the bat; however, if they are contested, and prior art is found...the patent is then deemed invalid.

However; I don't think a VCR -> PVR is valid prior art.

[riekl]

brad,

I agree with you, my point is they are saying things like well you could have had similar ability by conencting these two devices with this and whalla !

The bottom line is there was NO way to digitaly record 2 differnt channels at the same time before Tivo filed its patent (no single device that is)

[SHS]

That odd riekl don't re-call GO VCR and I take you don't know about first Digital Betacam introduced by Sony in 1993 Oh by the did also forget about Hardware Motion-JPEG capture card if has $$$$ you could ever get dual input recorder.

[ccarlin]

Here is the link to the patent: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/6,233,389

Not sure if that will clear things up

[riekl]

Originally posted by SHS
That odd riekl don't re-call GO VCR and I take you don't know about first Digital Betacam introduced by Sony in 1993 Oh by the did also forget about Hardware Motion-JPEG capture card if has $$$$ you could ever get dual input recorder.

SHS,

Nope I do know about those devices and NONE of them allowed you to watch one program and record another at the same time. Nor do i know what capture cards your takling about from before 1998 that could record live tv and you could run 2 of them at the same time in one box

[chrisj]

This portion of the patent has me intrigued:

"The TV streams are converted to an Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) formatted stream for internal transfer and manipulation and are parsed and separated it into video and audio components."

This describes specifically the format in which this is recorded, this would rule out a nullification due to prior art RE: the dual source tuner capture cards, GOVCR, or others.

Are any of you familiar with Divine Inc.? They have bought the patents for the process of online transactions, i.e. shopping cart. They have acquired this patent only to sue small companies that have online shopping carts (my wife works for one). The cost of patent lawyers have made it prohibitive to for the victim to fight back in court, so they pay the 5000$ licensing fee to have an online website. Google for it, and you will find many stories related to this company.

Even if TiVo does not have a legitimate suit, it may be too costly for BTV to fight if TiVo feels like making a big deal of it.

[Brett]

I believe AOL owns the patent to instant messeging, you don't see them taking on MSN or Yahoo .

If TiVO wins this case I will replace the TiVO I gave my parents with a BeyondTV Box

-Brett

[_Shorty]

I'm pretty sure there were TV tuner cards available long before tivo came around, heh. And the TV cards had software to go along with them. That's enough to render tivo's claims null and void.

[chrisj]

The patent is *very* specific as to how the elementary streams are handled, among other things, the patent body is pretty long. A video capture card with software alone would not encompass all of the patent, therefore would not establish prior art.

[wildbeast]

Originally posted by TV Scheduler
I wonder if I can get a patent for " a process allowing the user to walk while chewing gum"?

Bob

Actually you most probably can There's a patent for everything nowadays, it's pretty much impossible to open a company without getting the lawsuits that come along.