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.'"

Comments

prior art?

[pyros]

Can't Tivo claim prior art?

Dibs on the letter "e"

[GCP]

Well, I've patented the use of the letter "e". Not in general, obviously. It's really a very narrow patent, only covering the use of the letter "e" in any DVR on-screen message. I make no claim on any other letter. The plethora of letter options available means manufacturers are still able to create DVRs without a license from me. They just can't use the "e" without a license. I'm not unreasonable about it.

Capita what ?

[AftanGustur]

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 ;)

Actually, stupid patents hinder free competition and the growth of the market, so it shouldn't be consider capitalism.

The patent laws and the implementation we have today is much because of big companies with big bucks and lots of lawyers. It realy has a lot more to do with Fachism than anything else.

Just think about it, you want to assemble a few hardware parts write some software and start your business. But you can't somebody has patented the business idea you just got ... Capitalism ?? Bwahaha