Patent Office upholds Tivo's "time warp" patent, EchoStar not so happy

So, does this mean I shouldn't sign up with Dish? I was literally all set to schedule an install for next week, but if the absolutely necessary (for me) DVR functionality of Dish is in jeopardy, I will have to stay a little longer with CrapCast, uh, I mean, Comcast. DirecTV isn't an option because an HD DVR is $200 vs. free with Dish and unfortunately, no FIOS in my area yet. So, what do y'all think?

Go ahead and sign up thru dishstore Dishnetwork's DVR are going to be around as long as they are.
 
So, does this mean I shouldn't sign up with Dish? I was literally all set to schedule an install for next week, but if the absolutely necessary (for me) DVR functionality of Dish is in jeopardy, I will have to stay a little longer with CrapCast, uh, I mean, Comcast. DirecTV isn't an option because an HD DVR is $200 vs. free with Dish and unfortunately, no FIOS in my area yet. So, what do y'all think?

Again, Dish DVR's aren't going anywhere.
 
Tis far better to pay twice the court award and own the patents and not have to increase any DVR fees, and he can use Tivo patents to go after his competitors.

And what would be his basis for going after these companies? IIRC, these other companies have binding agreements/already settled with TiVO and have licensed this technology. Just because Charlie buys TiVo doesn't mean these agreements would go away.

As far as buying TiVo goes, there are a lot of things affecting this, not the least of which is the rumored AT&T purchase of Echostar. I don't forsee Dish losing it's DVR's, but I do think the cost to keep them just went up - assuming the Appeals Court turns down Dish's appeal.
 
Tivo was worth about $732.20M at the end of trading today. So, that means they will ask for $1-2B from E*.


Heh, Tivo has a Poison Pill. Each share splits into like 3 shares if anyone acquires more than 10% or something like that...except the person who acquired the 10 percent.

Me, I Just keep buy farthest out month calls whenever Tivo goes down below $6.

Someday they will pay big, until then, they always pay off, and I'm not stuck holding a ton of shares.
 
Heh, Tivo has a Poison Pill. Each share splits into like 3 shares if anyone acquires more than 10% or something like that...except the person who acquired the 10 percent.

Me, I Just keep buy farthest out month calls whenever Tivo goes down below $6.

Someday they will pay big, until then, they always pay off, and I'm not stuck holding a ton of shares.

The Poison Pill is 15%


TIVO INC - TIVO Unscheduled Material Events (8-K/A) EXHIBIT 99.1
 
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The thing that truly pisses me off about all of this is that had D* or E* hadn't been such cheapass bast**ds and decided to pony up and by TIVO. Then either company could have had a truly great product in their arsenal. It just sucks.....
 
I just saw a ad while watching the Tennis Channel on Dish. Talking about the Dish dvr and how it is better than TIVO. Shows where it was stated from CNET but I could not make out the year. Dish. Have you learned your lesson yet??
 
What do you think TiVo REALLY wants ? You think they want to put Dish out of the DVR business ? If so, you're 100% wrong. TiVo sued them in an attempt to *force* Dish to license their software. This is "normal" procedure in patent-infringement cases. If they shut effectively shut Dish down, what do they gain ? Dish and TiVo aren't really competitors. TiVo wants one thing, $$$.

They can't turn around and charge Dish many, many times more than what they charged SA, Pioneer, Motorola, and so on either.

And you know this because? On the board of directors or privvy to inside information, are we?

Where are you getting information re: licensing. There is NO LAW that says you have to license anyone at ANY PRICE to use your technology.
 
Not if Tivo shows they came up with the idea before replay. You can patent an idea before you produce a product.

Exactly! I can guarantee you that when I worked at Bell Labs we patented lots of things that were NEVER made, even as a prototype.

IF TiVo had infringed on anyone's technology and they had been able to prove it as TiVo has proven E* has done with theirs, they would have sued long ago. All these claims of prior inventions ought to cite patent numbers, they are NOT a secret. :D
 
I disagree 100%. The Dishplayer 7100 was out and had this feature before the first Tivo ever hit the streets.

The date of release of the 7100 has absolutely NOTHING to do with the date that TiVo was granted the patent.

I can file a patent on an invention and never produce a product and that does NOT give you the right to infringe on it without my approval. That is the whole idea of patents, to protect intellectual property and inventions and encourage those who want to use to invent or license technology.
 
Scott, it may not be good enough to make that claim. The patent protection process is timed by the Record of Invention filing dates or public disclosure. Presently, I think the law requires 1 year after public disclosure to file for patent. Introduction of a product for sale could be the start date or earlier if a public disclosure of the invention is made. This could be a formal RI to the US patent office, or a press release. After that you have one year to file the patent. Then, the discovery period may take lots longer, years, before the patent is issued by the USPatent TM office. The longer the better as it extends the 17 year protection period.

Correct, Don, and during that time, we were always looking at "derivative technologies" to patent or not patent as well, extending those patents out for a LONG time.

Thanks for your comments as well!
 
I work at dish and to be honest no one is sweating this at all and promise you will all see why real soon as said before "charlie has an ace up his sleeve" well distant didnt do so well but this time dish was well prepared for this i have heard to two options that are being pushed both sound easy enough today at work i will gather all the facts about the suit and what dishes plans are and post on here later today

Thanks for offering to share "insider information" from the executive meetings with us. :D

Saying "distant didn't do so well" is like the proverbial "t$$$ in a punchbowl" didn't get the guest at the dinner party too thrilled. :eek: If the solution this time is no better than that, hope your resume is in order.

BTW, if it had been so quick and easy to implement, my engineering and executive experience tells me that it would have been implemented long ago, as the court is levying increased costs to E* daily as long as this drags on.
 
I can't cite it, but in one of the many press stories on the net about Echostar's last Quarterly Earnings conference (before this latest upholding by the Patent Office), the reporter quoted Charlie Ergan as say that Echostar will be "talking with Tivo." Oh, My! Talking with Tivo? Charlie was out for blood regarding Tivo; now he will be "talking" with Tivo. To me, this "talking" means he is planning to buy Tivo, and he should. 'Tis far better to pay twice the court award and own the patents and not have to increase any DVR fees, and he can use Tivo patents to go after his competitors.

It has amazed me that chuckie hasn't tried to buy TiVo long ago. With every court decision he loses, the price goes up on what he will pay for them.

As far as going after competitors. don'y hold your breath, unless you look awesome in blue. D* and others have licensed the technology and have working agreements in place and have for years. There are HONEST companies out there, all are not run by crooks. :D
 
So, does this mean I shouldn't sign up with Dish? I was literally all set to schedule an install for next week, but if the absolutely necessary (for me) DVR functionality of Dish is in jeopardy, I will have to stay a little longer with CrapCast, uh, I mean, Comcast. DirecTV isn't an option because an HD DVR is $200 vs. free with Dish and unfortunately, no FIOS in my area yet. So, what do y'all think?

Go ahead and sign up thru dishstore Dishnetwork's DVR are going to be around as long as they are.

Again, Dish DVR's aren't going anywhere.

Looks to me like you should go ahead and sign up as these two, among others, are willing to take care of you in case you lose your DVR capabilities from dish. :D Send them a copy of programs you want and they can transcribe the plots of the shows you want and email them to you? :confused:

Seriously, nobody can assure you with absolute certainty what will happen tomorrow. TiVo could go into court with the results of the patent office's findings in hand and get the restraining order removed and have E*'s DVRs ordered by the court to be terminated IMMEDIATELY (wanna see chuckie ignore that one, if it comes down! :) ) or it could drag on for years and years. One thing I can assure you is that with either E* or D*, the service is much better and the DVRs are leagues ahead of what you are getting from comcr*p (I have used all 3 at home and speak from experience, those 64xx's are a bad joke.)
 
BTW, if it had been so quick and easy to implement, my engineering and executive experience tells me that it would have been implemented long ago, as the court is levying increased costs to E* daily as long as this drags on.
I agree. While i dont doubt there is or could be a fix, if it were so easy to implement it would have been done long ago.
 
I came up with this question at another site:

What makes everyone think that simply having Echostar's engineers change the software, all would be fine? As I recall, TiVo's Time Warp patent is both software and hardware, and the jury in the infringement case found Echostar guilty of infringing on the hardware claims of the Time Warp patent.

I don't think there is a way for Echostar's engineers to send software down the signal stream to update each DVR's hardware configuration. :)
 

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