TiVo's 'Big Win' Over Dish On Patents Looking Less And Less Solid, As Patent Office Rejects Patent Claims

Patents

from the oops dept

Early on TiVo had won pretty much of all of its patent battles with EchoStar over its DVR technology, perhaps helped along by a bit of bull buying in Texas. We had noted, however, that the USPTO had expressed concerns over the validity of the patents, and we wondered why the court case would move forward while the patents themselves might be rejected by the Patent Office. But, the case did go forward, and while TiVo initially won at the appeals court level (which made it so happy that it sued others and demanded ridiculous sums from EchoStar), things haven’t been looking quite so good lately.

Last month, the appeals court vacated the earlier decision, and agreed to rehear the case. And, now, it turns out that the USPTO has rejected two patent claims that were a key part of this fight. Of course, as TiVo is quick to point out, this isn’t the end of the review process, but it certainly raises serious questions about the validity of the patents TiVo is basing its whole strategy on.

Filed Under: dvr, patent, uspto
Companies: echostar, tivo

On Second Thought… Appeals Court Vacates TiVo's Big Patent Win Over Echostar

Patents

from the not-so-fast-there... dept

TiVo’s lawsuit against EchoStar for patent infringement has been a mostly one-sided affair. TiVo appeared to win at every turn, to the point that there were stories suggesting EchoStar would have to start blocking the use of its own DVR. TiVo had celebrated these victories by suing others as well, and demanding ridiculous sums of money from EchoStar. Of course, it seemed odd to us that, while all of this was happening, the US Patent Office was admitting the patents might not be valid. Oops.

Today, however, TiVo got some bad news. Despite initially siding with TiVo, the Federal Circuit has vacated the win, and agreed to rehear the case. Perhaps TiVo needs to buy some local livestock in DC, like it did in East Texas…

Filed Under: dvrs, patents
Companies: echostar, tivo

Copyright Damages Out Of Control: $51 Million For Satellite Cracking App?

Legal Issues

from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept

It continues to amaze me that there’s anyone out there who thinks that the damages awarded in many copyright suits are anywhere close to reasonable or proportional to the “crime” at hand. Copycense points us to an article about a guy who was found guilty of putting software on the internet that allowed people to unlock Dish Network programming on unauthorized receivers. Because of this, Dish and another satellite TV provider, NagraStar, were awarded $51 million. $51 million — for putting the software on the internet. That’s all. The amount was determined based on the number of people who downloaded the software, even though, in all likelihood, a much, much smaller percentage would have ever actually paid for an authorized satellite TV account. Furthermore, this guy did not do the actual act of accessing the unauthorized signal, or breaking any encryption. He merely provided the tools to do so. Charging him with the bogus “cost” of each user of his software makes no sense at all. Even if you accept what he did was wrong and clearly illegal, it’s difficult to see how that justifies the ridiculousness of the award.

Filed Under: copyright, damages, encryption, satellite
Companies: echostar, nagrastar

Fresh Off Victory Over Dish, TiVo Sues AT&T, Verizon

Legal Issues

from the can't-compete?-litigate! dept

Why bother competing in the market when you can just sue everyone else? That appears to be TiVo’s big strategy these days. Just a month after winning a big court victory over EchoStar/Dish over a patent that the USPTO is not really sure it should have issued, TiVo has moved on to sue both AT&T and Verizon in a nearly identical lawsuit. And, of course, you know exactly how the negotiations on this one start. TiVo will point to the headlines about the millions the the court has told Dish to pay. Whatever happened to the good old days when companies competed in the marketplace rather than in court? TiVo is a great and innovative product, no doubt. While not really the first such product, it did a great job convincing the market of the value of DVRs. But then others innovated as well, sometimes making their product even better. That’s called competition and it should drive everyone to make better products. It appears TiVo would rather that the competitors be kept out of the market, rather than bothering to innovate in the market.

Filed Under: dvrs, patents
Companies: at&t, echostar, tivo, verizon

Remind Me: Why Do We Let Patent Lawsuits Go On Even As USPTO Has Doubts About The Patents?

Legal Issues

from the shouldn't-things-wait? dept

While plenty of people are familiar with the fact that NTP got $612.5 million from RIM in a patent dispute a few years back (which drew tremendous scrutiny into the realm of patents), one of the most interesting details that many people didn’t follow was that at the same time as the lawsuit was going on, the US Patent Office was re-examining those same patents, and issuing rejections of the very same patents. Despite the USPTO even rushing to announce its problems with the patents way ahead of schedule, the judge chose not to wait for the final rejections and pressured RIM into paying up.

This sort of thing happens all the time.

For example, just weeks after TiVo was practically dancing in the streets over its latest wins over EchoStar in a patent dispute over basic DVR functionality, the USPTO has given an initial rejection on some of the claims at issue in the case. While TiVo is quick to downplay this as just the first step in a long process (which it gets to respond to), it’s being a bit misleading in suggesting that this sort of thing happens all the time. Sure — it happens a lot, but to questionable patents. It seems that, if the USPTO has agreed to review a patent and clearly the examiners have serous questions about the patentability of certain claims, shouldn’t any lawsuits that hinge on those patents be put on hold?

Filed Under: lawsuits, patents, review, uspto
Companies: echostar, tivo

TiVo Goes Dr. Evil On EchoStar: One BILL-ion Dollars, Please

Legal Issues

from the make-this-end dept

TiVo and EchoStar (DISH) have been involved in a long and convoluted patent battle over basic DVR functionality. TiVo’s certainly been winning. Personally, the whole thing is pretty ridiculous to me. The market is better served by competition, and having multiple players focusing on providing better DVR functionality (and, trust me, having used both their DVRs, they could both stand for some significant improvements) rather than spending money on lawyers. Either way, TiVo seems to be shooting for the moon with its latest demand that Dish pay up $1 billion dollars (Dr. Evil laughter inserted here), which is a lot more than the hundreds of millions most folks expected. One doubts they’ll actually get that much — the number is probably more of an effort to get EchoStar to just settle. But, if they do get numbers like that, you have to admit that buying that cow in Texas was a great investment.

Filed Under: dvrs, patents
Companies: echostar, tivo

Sling Still Upset About Remotely Hosted Slingboxes

Overhype

from the but-why? dept

Almost two years ago, we wrote about how Sling Media, makers of the popular place-shifting Slingbox, was upset at various services that let people watch TV via their computers. Of course, that’s exactly what the Slingbox is intended for — but the twist here was that the TV was hosted somewhere else. Basically, a few companies set themselves up so that you could buy a Slingbox and a TV connection, but, rather than installing it in your own home, it would be hosted elsewhere. That’s useful, say, if your an American living abroad, but still want to be able to watch American television. It was difficult to see what was wrong with any of this, as it seemed to be exactly what the device was designed to do — and everyone who was supposed to be getting paid was still getting paid. Cable or satellite TV providers got an extra customer (one who doesn’t even live in their territory, so it’s actually a bonus!) and Sling sells another box.

The good news is that over those past two years, Sling (now owned by Echostar) apparently hasn’t done much to stop these services. The bad news is that it’s still complaining about them. Newsweek has an article that highlights how creative people have become in figuring out ways to do more interesting things with their Slingboxes so that they can watch content remotely. This is exactly the sort of thing a smart company would encourage. It makes the device more valuable and should help them sell more Slingboxes. So, it’s too bad that a company that built such a cool and useful device is instead telling people they’re not allowed to do these things with products they bought. Remember the good old days when you bought a product and actually owned it?

Filed Under: place shifting, slingbox
Companies: echostar, sling media

Court Tells Echostar It Doesn't Get Access To Customer Lists Of Satellite Receiver Company

Legal Issues

from the chalk-one-up-for-privacy dept

Recently, we wrote about how satellite TV provider Echostar had been sending out subpoenas demanding customer lists from resellers who had sold satellite receivers made by a company named Freetech. Freetech’s satellite receivers can be used to receive perfectly legal over-the-air satellite TV signals. Echostar’s complaint was that many also used Freetech’s receivers to pirate its own DishTV offering. However, that doesn’t give Echostar the right to then demand the contact info on everyone who ever bought a Freetech receiver, as many could be using them for perfectly legal purposes. And, historically, with DirecTV, we’ve seen a similar situation where the DirecTV forced plenty of totally innocent smart card device buyers to pay up by threatening them with lawsuits over pirated satellite TV.

Luckily, it looks like the EFF helped convince the judge that Echostar was out of line, and the judge has said that the buyers’ privacy trumps Echostar’s right to the info. As the EFF notes, this is a big ruling, in that it’s “the first time a federal court has explicitly rejected a third-party subpoena on the basis of the privacy interests of nonparty consumers.” Chalk one up for the right to privacy.

Filed Under: eff, piracy, privacy, satellite tv, subpoenas
Companies: directv, echostar, freetech

Echostar Trying To Get Info On Innocent Customers Of Satellite TV Receivers

Legal Issues

from the this-again? dept

You may recall a few years back, prior to the RIAA embracing the concept of “pre-litigation letters,” that DirecTV was a huge proponent of using them. The company had sued some companies that sold smart card readers — which could be used for a variety of purposes, only one of which was potentially unauthorized access of satellite TV signals. However, DirecTV was still given access to those company’s full customer lists, and proceeded to send most of them one of those pre-litigation letters, demanding $3,500 or saying that a lawsuit would be filed. Of course, plenty of buyers had perfectly legitimate reasons for purchasing a smart card reader that had nothing at all to do with pirating satellite TV. But, no matter, pay up or go to court. And, in fact, many people just paid up.

Eventually, a court finally told DirecTV to knock it off.

However, it appears that DirecTV’s main competitors, Echostar never got the message. The EFF is pointing out that Echostar is trying to gain access to the customer lists of a bunch of sellers of a satellite receiver even if there’s no evidence that the individual buyers used the satellite receivers to pirate Echostar’s DISH Network satellite TV service.

Filed Under: customers, piracy, privacy, satellite receivers, satellite tv
Companies: directv, echostar

News Corp Found Guilty Of Hacking Only A Single DISH Smart Card

Legal Issues

from the that's-not-gonna-hurt dept

Last month we wrote about the strange case of DISH Networks accusing a News Corp subsidiary of hacking its smart cards and distributing them. This seemed really unlikely, as there was little incentive for the company to do so. The company did admit to reverse engineering DISH Networks technology (which is perfectly legal). It appears that a jury wasn’t particularly convinced either. It did find the subsidiary guilty of hacking one single smart card, for which the company was fined $49.69 (ouch!), and then the court added another $1000 for “damages.” So, technically it’s a “victory” for DISH, but probably not to the level it was expecting.

Filed Under: hacking, satellite tv
Companies: dish network, echostar, news corp