Audio Video News

TiVo's long running battle to protect its DVR patent is seeing setbacks on two different fronts.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has denied TiVo's claim that the company owns the patent on "time warp" DVR technology. This could complicate TiVo's courtroom battles to assert its patent, especially over EchoStar's Dish Network, which was ordered in 2006 to pay $74 million in damages to TiVo for patent infringement. In 2009 the damages were upped to $200 million, prompting observations that TiVo makes more money in litigation than it does in marketing its products.

Naturally the EchoStar people thanked the patent office for "maintaining its rejection of the software claims of TiVo's patent." The TiVo people professed disappointment, but will "continue to work with the PTO to explain the validity of the claims under review." They note that the patent office has upheld some of TiVo's claims in the past.

The action now moves to a federal appeals court which has granted EchoStar's plea for a rehearing. With the patent office no longer on TiVo's side, EchoStar is hoping for a more positive verdict. And thus the long-running saga continues.

See News.com.