Life or Death for Tivo

CUShane writes "The Washington Post is running an article on the patent case between Tivo and EchoStar regarding Tivo's DVR technology. The article states that Tivo has a better than 70% chance of winning, while a loss would basically doom the company. Is there a possibility that the patent system is working right in this case?" From the article: "TiVo attorney Morgan Chu has been arguing in court that TiVo's inability to turn a profit, despite the popularity of its product, is partially because of EchoStar's infringing on its patent. TiVo co-founder Michael Ramsay testified that he showed EchoStar executives the TiVo product and pursued a licensing deal with them, but that a deal was never struck even though EchoStar began selling its own DVRs that used technology very similar to TiVo's."

Comments

We call that "Forum Shopping"

[TubeSteak]

That TiVo sued EchoStar in tiny Marshall, Texas, was no accident, said Bradford Lyerla, intellectual property attorney and partner with Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, a specialty firm in Chicago. Juries there, Lyerla said, find in favor of the plaintiffs in patent trials about 80% of the time.
...
"TiVo has a great jury story," Lyerla said. "If TiVo loses, it could be the end of them. That creates greater sympathy on the part of the jury."

The patent system has nothing to do with this.

This story is entirely about the jury. A jury can decide a case any which way they like, no matter what the law says (see jury nullification)

+1 to Tivo for manipulating the system.

Re:We call that "Forum Shopping"

[nickname225]

I am an attorney - and this issue of Jury nullification is not entirely true. It's true that in U.S. Criminal cases (where double jeopardy applies) a jury can effectively nullify a law with a finding of not guilty. In civil cases, it's not so easy. A judge in a civil case can overturn a jury finding and render a Judgment notwithstanding the Verdict (JNOV in Lawyerspeak). It's exactly what it sounds like - the jury can find for one party and the judge can decide that the jury is wrong and find for the other side. It's not done too commonly - and judges don't have a completely free hand - the standard is something like "No reasonable jury could reach this verdict". Of course, it's reviewable on appeal - and in the U.S. we are hesitant to over rule a jury - but if the jury just ignores the law a judge will not stand by.

Re:I Think This Can Be Summed Up In Five Words

[Digital Pizza]

If you think the whole Mac/PC beef is religious in nature, try the Tivo/anything else one.

Ain't that the truth.

Go to an online TiVo forum and ask about feeding your TiVo listings from XMLTV rather than subscribing. Bask in the hostility.

Here's a hint: google for "oztivo", "tivocanada", and "service emulator". Learn perl. Then lament the fact that you'd be sued and lynched if you ever told anyone how you did it.

(This is all hypothetical, of course.)

The patent in question

[angle_slam]

I hate the way the news media covers cases like this because they never do something simple, like tell you what patent number is at issue. So this is a mere educated guess, but I think the patent in question is 6,233,389.

Here's claim 1:

1. A process for the simultaneous storage and play back of multimedia data, comprising the steps of:
accepting television (TV) broadcast signals, wherein said TV signals are based on a multitude of standards, including, but not limited to, National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) broadcast, PAL broadcast, satellite transmission, DSS, DBS, or ATSC;
tuning said TV signals to a specific program;
providing at least one Input Section, wherein said Input Section converts said specific program to an Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) formatted stream for internal transfer and manipulation;
providing a Media Switch, wherein said Media Switch parses said MPEG stream, said MPEG stream is separated into its video and audio components;
storing said video and audio components on a storage device;
providing at least one Output Section, wherein said Output Section extracts said video and audio components from said storage device;
wherein said Output Section assembles said video and audio components into an MPEG stream;
wherein said Output Section sends said MPEG stream to a decoder;
wherein said decoder converts said MPEG stream into TV output signals;
wherein said decoder delivers said TV output signals to a TV receiver; and
accepting control commands from a user, wherein said control commands are sent through the system and affect the flow of said MPEG stream.