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SONICblue Granted Broad Patent on DVR Technology
hayb writes: "In another miscue from the U.S. Patent office, Sonicblue has received a patent for everything under the PVR sun. Now comes the question if they will go after others, or at least Tivo. To quote the first line of the patent: 'USPTO patent number 6,324,338 also covers methodology that creates, names, prioritizes and manages recorded programs on the hard drive for DVRs.'"
I love the fact that patent wars might erupt between the PVR folks while at the same time theyre battling copyright wars with everyone else....Damn, I love capitalism ;)
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.
I'd be very surprised if a lawsuite comes out of this except as a tactic to leverage a little better price on patent royalties. Sonicblue will give Tivo a call that goes a little something like this:
Sonicblue: Hi, Tivo, we were thinking you might want to license this patent from us for $X.
Tivo: But that's not a valid patent, we've been doing that for years.
Sonicblue: Well, you can fight us if you'd like. I'm sure your lawyers will only charge you 10-100 times $X.
Tivo: hmmmm... okay, where do we send the money. We can always pass the cost on to the customer anyhow
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I, for one, think this is a good thing. After a brief visit to Microsoft's "Re-education" Center I've learned that competition bad, patents good.
"Say Goodbye to 20 years of Network Oppression! "
(crowd cheers)
"And Say Hello to 20 years of SONICBlue Oppression!"
(crowd continues to cheer)
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
And in other news:
Head and Shoulders receives broad patent regarding method and implementation for shampoo application, "Lather, Rinse, Repeat". After careful consideration, the U.S. Patent Office determined said patent was not overly broad because, "There are other ways of doing it, such as 'Rinse, Repeat, Lather.'"
When: 12/4/2001
Company: The United States of America
Severity: 100 - new hall of fame inductee!
Points: 0 (The rest of the world already knew)
-FF
SQUEAK, the Death of Rats explained.
Well, prior art means exactly didley-swat!
:-)
For example, Julius Caesar used to have a combover two millenia ago. But look what i found in Delphion.
Scary, huh. If you're gonna try that you've got bigger problems than both hairloss and patent infridgement.
6,666,666
Inventor: Satan, et. al.
Friday, 13th September 2002
Secure repository of souls in unpleasant conditions.
Abstract
This patent covers a method of storage of a plurality of souls, selected by an inverse meritocratic criteria, in a plurality of areas containing, but not limited to, fire, brimstone and bubbling pools of sulphur.