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TiVo Sues Comcast Again, Alleging Operator's X1 Infringes Eight Patents (variety.com)
TiVo's Rovi subsidiary on Wednesday filed two lawsuits in federal district courts, alleging Comcast's X1 platform infringes eight TiVo-owned patents. "That includes technology covering pausing and resuming shows on different devices; restarting live programming in progress; certain advanced DVR recording features; and advanced search and voice functionality," reports Variety. From the report: A Comcast spokeswoman said the company will "aggressively defend" itself. "Comcast engineers independently created our X1 products and services, and through its litigation campaign against Comcast, Rovi seeks to charge Comcast and its customers for technology Rovi didn't create," the Comcast rep said in a statement. "Rovi's attempt to extract these unfounded payments for its aging and increasingly obsolete patent portfolio has failed to date."
TiVo's legal action comes after entertainment-tech vendor Rovi (which acquired the DVR company in 2016 and adopted the TiVo name) sued Comcast and its set-top suppliers in April 2016, alleging infringement of 14 patents. In November 2017, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Comcast infringed two Rovi patents -- with the cable operator prevailing on most of the patents at issue. However, because one of the TiVo patents Comcast was found to have violated covered cloud-based DVR functions, the cable operator disabled that feature for X1 customers. Comcast is appealing the ITC ruling.
TiVo's legal action comes after entertainment-tech vendor Rovi (which acquired the DVR company in 2016 and adopted the TiVo name) sued Comcast and its set-top suppliers in April 2016, alleging infringement of 14 patents. In November 2017, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Comcast infringed two Rovi patents -- with the cable operator prevailing on most of the patents at issue. However, because one of the TiVo patents Comcast was found to have violated covered cloud-based DVR functions, the cable operator disabled that feature for X1 customers. Comcast is appealing the ITC ruling.
TiVo isn't a patent troll, at least not in the sense we usually apply that term. TiVo actually has created products that use their patents. The problem is they're using intellectual property litigation involving dubious patents to try to replace declining revenue. Your post is definitely flamebait, but I'll address the political issue. The Republicans certainly tend to promote policies that favor big business and the wealthy. Placing more restrictions to prevent obvious and otherwise dubious patents will limit patent litigation. A patent lawsuit is a net loss because no new revenue is created in the process, though it can be lost if a business decides to stop selling a product due to patent infringement. Money may be transferred from one business to another, as part of royalties or settlements, but new revenue isn't creared. Furthermore, money is definitely lost paying the lawyers. If patent lawsuits we're less frequent, more of that money would go toward profits and business expenses, hopefully including R&D. In summary, Republicans do generally support policies that are favorable toward big business, and patent reform may actually benefit those businesses.