If you though TiVo and EchoStar were judged, settled, and ready to go their separate
ways, think again. The $74 million windfall
TiVo just got from their patent infringement suit against EchoStar is about to get all RIM / NTP on us. EchoStar
filed a request late last year with the USPTO to reexamine TiVo's famous 1998 TiVo-secret-sauce patent (otherwise known
as patent #6233389 for a "multimedia time warping system") -- almost two years into the case, not
before -- and apparently they're now pressuring the judge presiding to stay judgment until word comes back from
the patent office. Being that TiVo won the trial by jury and the judge has yet to hand down the final verdict, EchoStar
can continue pressuring to stay the case until the patent has been reviewed, and accepted or rejected as novel /
un-novel, then undoubtedly re-petitioned continuously by one party or the other until the system breaks down and
someone -- like the judge -- gives up on the process. Will TiVo's judge be as harsh and unforgiving as James Spencer was with RIM in their battle with NTP? That's yet to
be seen, but in a release on the judgment, EchoStar called the jury's verdict "the first step in a very long
process" and expressed their belief that "the decision will be reversed either through post-trial motions or
on appeal." In other words this has the makings of yet another patent-suit fiasco, and frankly we'd like none of
it.[Thanks, Ryan]
