Two years after initially smacking down Echostar (now just Dish Network) in court for stepping on its patent for a “multimedia time warping system” (aka a DVR) Tivo has clinched final and lasting victory against the satellite provider. Dish Network subscribers won’t have to worry about losing their DVRs or seeing anything different though, since the current boxes are designed around Tivo’s patents (probably because they knew they were gonna go down in court). Update: Echostar/Dish is actually gonna take it all the way to the Supreme Court!
https://gizmodo.com/tivo-beats-echostars-butt-167267
After battling through a gauntlet of appeals and patent re-certifications, earlier today, a US Appeals Court denied Echostar’s appeal to overturn an earlier verdict that it infringed on Tivo’s patent with its own DVR setup. The ruling gives Tivo ammo to go after pretty much everyone hawking their own DVR, so things could get kind of interesting, in a protracted legal slugfest kind of way. ‘Course going around and suing and everyone would probably put a damper on their plans to expand by licensing (think Tivo on Comcast, but bigger). [Thomas Hawk via CNET]
https://gizmodo.com/patent-office-re-koshers-tivos-time-warp-patent-over-ec-328081
