Why can’t companies simply compete? TiVo has been losing money since it began, and throwing a shoe into EchoStar’s works isn’t going to help it get any stronger.
U.S. District Court Judge David Folsom in Texas also ordered EchoStar to pay TiVo almost $90 million in damages and interest, Alviso, California-based TiVo said today in a statement.
“This decision recognizes that our intellectual property is valuable and will ensure that moving forward EchoStar will be unable to use our patented technology without our authorization,” TiVo said.
The ruling requires EchoStar to shut off service to customers with the DVRs within 30 days.
Are they going to go after other DVR manufacturers now? If TiVo begins using license sales as the basis of their business model, how will that affect the emerging DVR industry?
I guess it would be ok if I copied one of your books and sold it as my own?
Like it or not, Tivo has a patent and so everyone either works around it or buys a license for the next 17 years. That is provided for in the Constitution. It isn’t like there is no way to work around. They could have given away a version of MythTV, for example. Being inspired by someone else’s idea is one thing. Stealing it is quite another. I have a lot less problem with this that I do with the copyright industry. At least patents don’t last for 50% longer than my entire expected lifetime.
Paul – That’s BS. A more valid comparison would be making another book on the same subject.
The judge should have just ordered the two parties to form a licencing agreement, either a one time fee, or a % of the income EchoStar generates from it’s dvr program. If it be the %, then also backpay of previous income from the use. Give a deadline for that agreement to be made, and if the two don’t come to terms by then, the judge makes the terms. That way no one loses, and competion is allowed. As it is EchoStar costumers lose out…
I guess it would be ok if I copied one of your books and sold it as my own?
That’s confusing copyright with patents, which you probably already realized by now.
Giving away MythTV wouldn’t necessarily have solved the problem. It’s not clear (yet) whether Tivo will go after them next, but they could.
It’s an actual technological object that does something.
Well, not exactly.
Tivo patented the IDEA of time-shifting live broadcasts. That obviously isn’t anything new… the networks have been doing that during sporting events for decades. And as we all (should) know, for something to be patentable, it should be new, and non-obvious to a someone practiced in the field. It’s NOT supposed to be about who wins the race to file paperwork on every single little idea in the world.
Actually, Paul is closer to the history of the relationship and suit between the two firms. TiVo provided prototypes and early models to E* as a consultant for the project.
The dweebs at E* were so lame about (1) developing an alternative because (2) they were too cheap to pay the same vig as DirecTV ($1 a unit) — so, they did almost a direct mirror of the TiVo software/hardware package.
It was an easy suit and they should just pay up and get on with it — or be really smart and adopt the real TiVo package to sell to DirecTV owners who are pissed off about Rupert substituting his own box for their original DirecTiVo’s.
Meanwhile, DirecTV and Echostar are considering merging… again… and the MPEG4 HD DVR made by DirecTV, as a replacement to the HD Tivo, is rolling out in LA. It doesn’t seem to be a terrible piece of equipment. Not in Tivo’s league, but not too far away.
Tivo isn’t being passed, it was passed years ago. This lawsuit is nothing more than the flailing of a desperate company.
This does setup the Tivo Series 3 to be a great piece of hardware that no one can use, however.
This does setup the Tivo Series 3 to be a great piece of hardware that no one can use, however.
How do you figure that?
A Federal Court judge has blocked the injunction granted TIVO. Here is link to the Echostar response posted on their website:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=68854&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=897186&highlight=
Saggy — thought I sent you same sources you used. GM having an “operating profit” for a quarter is not a “net profit”. They haven’t announced one way or the other on the latter. ‘Nuff OT.
The problem the Series 3 faces — is that as it finally moves into cablecard — the cable companies are leapfrogging that technology and dropping cablecard. Not that they ever did much with it, anyway.
James, I’ve read the same generally positive reviews on the HR20. Not living within 1000 miles of L.A., I don’t get to test one real soon.
7 The fact that it already has gone to court leads me to believe that Echostar and Tivo couldn’t see eye-to-eye.
From the linked article:
TiVo won the first round of the battle with EchoStar in April when a Marshall, Texas, jury found that EchoStar was violating TiVo’s patent. The jury ordered EchoStar to pay $74 million in damages.
Off Topic:
Is this Texas court the same one that Apple filed its patent case against Creative?
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/88285/apple-sues-creative-again.html
The suit was filed in a district court in Texarkana, Texas, which handles a ‘disproportionate share’ of major patent cases in the US.
‘Legal experts have found that patent trials put before juries in the court have favoured patent holders, suggesting that Apple has chosen the venue as a means to put pressure on Creative to settle the patent dispute quickly,’ the news agency notes.
I’ve got a DISH DVR. This sucks for me. Big time.
And a federal appeals court has blocked the Tivo injunction……..
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/aboutus/presskit/press/index.shtml
I had this really good idea for a product the other day but I’m sure someone has a patent on something vaguely similar so…
Am I confusing patents with copyrights, or is it not your responsibility, as a patent holder, to defent your patent or it somehow becomes invalid? Not that I’m defending Tivo (I am a Dish Network DVR owner as well).
I’m sure this will go the way of the RIMM mess – down to the wire before a settlement is reached. Both companies are in the business of making money and neither will if Dish needs to disable it’s DVR functionality.
@ 10, 13
In addition, I’ve read a number of stories where cable companies are (legally) implementing a rule where they will only install CableCards in televisions, not in external boxes, as a way to protect their own DVR rental income.
Moss, I’m optimistic that they’ll roll the HR20 out to more markets soon. The sooner they’re able to light up what I consider second tier channels (Nat’l Geo. HD, Food HD, HGTV HD, INHD, Starz HD, Skinamax HD) in MPEG4 the sooner they pull back even in the HD race they once lead. In addition, I hope they’ll move the existing HD to MPEG4 to improve PQ, which is a catagory I still believe D* and E* can beat the cable companies in (the lack of bandwidth issue is hitting cable companies now, too).