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TiVo Relaunching As a Patent Troll?
An anonymous reader writes "TiVo's quarterly call was a bit more dramatic than usual. While they continue to lose customers and innovate 'at a very unhurried pace,' TiVo seeks a repeat DISH Network performance in going after AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) for infringement. Basically, TiVo's current business model appears to be ad sales and patent trolling."
It's a legitimate case for used technology.
A patent troll is just someone who patents lots of 'ideas' and then sue whoever happen to have something similar in the market.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Ridiculous or not, that the whole idea of patents, as a means of providing a reward for innovation and thereby encouraging innovation. To quote the provision of the US Constitution enabling patents and copyrights: "The Congress shall have the power [...] [t]o promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
Well, if Ford had invented the car, sure, it would be like only having Ford cars for a brief period after Ford invented them.
I have a Series 1 Tivo; bought it about 10 years ago with a lifetime subscription. I late 2004, the cableco offered an HD DVR with HDTV, etc, so I switched to that configuration and stuck the old Tivo on the shelf. In 2008 I subscribed to Netflix, and thought the cableco DVR really wasn't needed anymore since I rarely watch live sports at home, and everything else of interest in HD was available on HD DVD or upscaled DVD.
I looked at the Series 3 HD Tivo, and decided to get one because it was cheap enough to amortize the cost in a few years, could stream Netflix and had some other nice features.
My experience with it was bad, though. The thing had too many software bugs and there are far too many ads embedded in the menus. Tivo has unfortunately jumped the shark. I returned it, got a Roku box for Netflix, and reconnected my old Tivo (good thing I got the lifetime subscription), which makes sense now that the only timeshifting I need to do is for broadcast television, since everything else of interest to me can be streamed.
Sorry to say, but I think Tivo will not be a "going concern" for much longer, given, in my experience, that their product quality has plunged and the need for a DVR is diminishing as more content becomes available via streaming. It's interesting to me that streaming made the old Tivo relevant again.
Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings! -Feynman, maybe
Further, the "unhurried pace" quote actually refers to dealing with an expired Java certificate in their desktop software (i.e. nobody's working on fixing it quickly.) "Innovating at an unhurried pace" is misleading and unsupported by the quote referenced.
Digital video != DVR
The are at lease trying to get into those markets. The already offer Netflix streaming and you can purchase or rent content from Amazon. Hopefully they will continue to expand these options into content from sites like Hulu. I'd hate to lose my Tivo box because they went out of business.
BUT, other companies are still pedaling their hardware that infringes on Tivo's (still valid) hardware patents.
Is anyone else imagining Tivo as the Wicked Witch of the West, pedaling on a bicycle in a twister, cackling about patents?
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