Good news for TiVo: court upholds patent claims against Echostar
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jan 31st 2008 1:40PM
posted Jan 31st 2008 1:40PM
The TiVo vs. EchoStar case got another little push towards finally ending today, as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that EchoStar had indeed infringed part of TiVo's "time warp" patent. You might recall that the case had recently been on hold while the USPTO re-affirmed that the patent was valid -- armed with that decision, the appeals court ruled that EchoStar had crossed the line on the software component of the patent, but that more information was needed regarding whether or not EchoStar's hardware also infringed. That means we're in for another round of wrangling down in Marshall -- we'll keep you updated, if we can manage to stay awake.[Via Zatz Not Funny! Warning: PDF read link]
Digg this!!
http://digg.com/tech_news/Good_news_for_TiVo_court_upholds_patents_against_Echostar
>> as the Court of Appeals for the Eastern District
>> of Texas
Oh Nilay, I'd expect better from an attorney. It's the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in DC, that issued this opinion. The CAFC hears all appeals in patent cases regardless of the original venue.
-p-
Ugh, you're right, Patrick -- too many cases open on my screen!
No worries. Just piping up so my eye-for-detail name is out there. Need any guest writers? ;-)
*squint* and what's with using my real name? That's what the alias is for! *grin*
-p-
Ya know, without getting barraged with responses from resident patent law experts can I just say how much this blows. I have 4 Echostar DVRs and I like them better than I like Tivo. I've used Tivo, and I just prefer the Echostar boxes.
I agree completely. Regardless of the patent situation lets just hope that Echostar can find a way too keep their superior boxes in consumers hands without having to charge an arm and a leg for them.
Wait, people still use tivo?
Yes people still use TiVo. I for one have a life time contract (7 yrs+ with same hardware) I don't owe my cable outlet any additional monthly bills for DVR rental.
I stopped using my series 2 box when I went to HD. Their hardware is cost prohibitive, and time warner around here charges the same for the service with or without the box.
I like the tivo interface more, but $600+monthly service on top of my TWC bill... not a chance.
Jay Jay Jay... $600? They do have an HD Tivo that is $300, not $600. https://www3.tivo.com/store/boxes.do
Nice of them to make the thing more reasonably priced!
yeah, seriously. I had a series 2 TiVo and loved it. When I moved into my new apartment, the two-prong cable didn't play nicely with TiVo's one-prong coax input so I sucked it up and dealt with Comcast's buggy and unresponsive box.
Once Comcast sent me a letter saying that they'd be upping my monthly cost to rent their HD DVR to something more expensive than a TiVo, I dropped the $300 for an HD TiVo with a Cable Card tuner and couldn't be happier (admittedly I do not use VOD - Comcast's VOD is garbage).
While I too balked at TiVo's $800 intro to the HD market, the TiVo HD at $300 is hardly prohibitive.
-p-
i scored me a directv hd tivo HR10 i know its an older model but i gotta have my tivo
Is any of this negated by the fact that Echostar now owns what was left of ReplayTV, which beat TiVo to market in the first place?
Wonder what this will do to the Echostar TR-50? I was looking forward to getting one of those...