TiVo Buys Six New Patents From IBM

Thomas Hawk writes "TiVo reported in an 8-K filing today that on March 31, 2005 they purchased six new patents from IBM. The patents purchased reportedly have to do with audience research and measurement, integration of television signals with internet access, automatic rescheduling of recordings, content screening, enhanced program information search and electronic program guide interface enhancements. For those of you privacy advocates out there you will love Patent No. 5,872,588: Method and apparatus for monitoring audio-visual materials presented to a subscriber. " The link has very little additional information.

Comments

Interestingly

[2.7182]

One of those patents actually depends (in IP sense) on patents bought by IBM from RCA in the 70s.

Some more information...

[TripMaster Monkey]

The link has very little additional information

No kidding. In the interest of promoting more discussion, here's the abstract from patent #5,872,588:

Method and apparatus for monitoring audio-visual materials presented to a subscriber

Abstract

A method and apparatus for content coding of Audio-Visual materials is presented. The content coding can then be decoded by a home station where the content coding is collected and processed. The content codes are utilized by the subscribers home station to collect information on the subscribers selection of AVM streams and record information on which AVMs have been presented to the subscriber. An audio-video material distribution system is described for supplying AVM streams to home station via a local distribution network. The home stations decode the content coding from the AVM streams and collect the encoded content codes. The collected content codes are then sent to collection centers for processing. The encoded information may also utilized to provide management of an upstream channel between the home stations and the video distribution node.

The best patents.

[krbvroc1]

One of the patents appears to be "A method for diversion of eyeballs in conjunction with the suspension of sound during commericals".

These are patented

[Telvin_3d]

Every time I see any sort of list of the things IT companies have pattented, I have to shake my head in wonder. Is it just me, or is half this stuff common sense, not a breakthrough in tecnology. If they can give a pattent for 'enhanced program information search', I am surprised that Google hasn't simply gone through the dictionary and patented a search for every item that has an electrical signal. These things should be features, not patents.

Prior art.

[Tackhead]

> For those of you privacy advocates out there you will love Patent No. 5,872,588: Method and apparatus for monitoring audio-visual materials presented to a subscriber.

"The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."

- Some dude, prior art, ca. 1948

Even as a junior employee, George was always better at writing functional specifications than literature.

Legal Trouble?

[Anonymous Coward]

Woah for a second there I read:

TiVo Buys Six Packs From IBM

and was very scared for both the legality of an older company selling beer to a younger company and also I was worried how that might corrupt an innocent little company like TiVo.

More info here

[MarkGriz]

There's more info on the 8K filing here

As if we'd RTFA...

[Reignking]

The link has very little additional information.

Well, you've done it now -- now we're not going to RTFA!!

Re:Ridiculous

[back_pages]

Patent protections need to start reflecting their original intention - to grant to that PERSON the right to solely benefit from their invention.

Uh, right, like making a profit by selling the rights to their invention. Not everybody has an industrial complex in their backyard. Good call. +1 Insightful for sure.

Jeeze, everybody is an expert around here. I hope there's an alternate universe where IP professionals bitch and moan on an internet bulletin board about how IT professionals are idiots who can't perform their duties.

Re:Ridiculous

[wcrowe]

I hope there's an alternate universe where IP professionals bitch and moan on an internet bulletin board about how IT professionals are idiots who can't perform their duties.

The problem I have with IP is patents are granted to people who have yet to create an invention. Patents should only be granted to actual, functional devices.

It's like this: just because one might dream of owning a ranch in Montana, doesn't mean one actually holds property there. Yet that is how our current patent system works.