Posted on 08/18/2006 9:05:05 AM PDT by txroadkill
An East Texas judge has ordered the parent of DISH satellite television to stop selling and turn off about 4 million of its digital video recorders within 30 days.
U.S. District Judge David Folsom also ordered DISH parent EchoStar Communications to pay almost $90 million in damages.
The Thursday decision comes after a federal jury in Marshall in April determined that EchoStar willfully infringed on TiVo's "time-warp" patent. That applies to the way a DVR simultaneously records one program while playing back another.EchoStar is the country's second-largest satellite television provider with about 12.5 million subscribers.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I have a Panasonic DVR which does this too. Glad I already have it! Someone will make some royalties on this feature. No one will buy a DVR without it.
If anyone messes with my Time Warner HD-DVR, I will spend the rest of my life making the rest of their life miserable.
That's weird ... $90M in damages for 4M receivers? That is a judgment of about 22 bucks a pop. That seems uncharacteristically stingy.
IMO, no such patent should have been granted, on the basis of obviousness.
By the time the lawyers skim their cut from the settlement, it'll equate to a coupon for a free month of Showtime a pop.
I have Time Warner and I love my DVR. It's up there with my favorite inventions of all time.
in other news a judge odered every other car maker to stop making cars and to pay ford damages for the way a car runs on four tires while being controlled by foot pedals and a steering wheel/ DUH!
Since TIVO is starting to lose out to competition from other DVRs, they are going to get their money the old fashioned way. Sue.
I can't live without my DVR even though there's 700 channels with nothing ever on them.
We badly need patent reform - it is a major handicap to the technology industry. The scope of what is patentable these days is scarily broad, and it is not like some dumb bureaucrat in the patent office has the knowledge to understand what is legit or not.
Appealed, injuction filed:
http://cbs4denver.com/business/local_story_230113652.html
The Dish DVR is much better than the TIVO. I just got rid of my Dish and changed to Direct TV which uses TIVO technolgy. TIVO has terrible software.
Tivo and SCO... scum.
Sorry, don't have a link got this off another board
DJ EchoStar Says Fedl Court Blocks Texas Crt Injunction
EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH) on Friday said a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the injunction issued against the company regarding its digital video recorder products.
Earlier Friday, a U.S. District Court judge in Texas granted a motion by TiVo Inc. (TIVO), ordering EchoStar to stop selling and turn off about four million of its DVRs within 30 days.
TiVo sued EchoStar in May 2001, alleging the company and certain of its subsidiaries had violated its so-called "Time Warp" patent.
"We continue to believe the Texas decision was wrong, and should be reversed on appeal," EchoStar said in a statement. "We also continue to work on modifications to our new DVRs, and to our DVRs in the field, intended to avoid future alleged infringement."
EchoStar is the country's second-largest satellite TV provider with about 12.5 million subscribers
Thank God! I HATE watching shows in real-time. I'll pause a show at the start, go do something for 15 minutes, and then then watch with the totally enjoyable ability to forward zap threw all commercials.
Incorrect. Directv ditched their TiVo boxes a while back. If you just switched you got a new wholely owned and developed by Directv DVR. The conensus is the new box stinks.
The old DirecTiVo boxes were about the best I ever had.
Ditto that. I'm sure plenty of tech-savvy folks were doing that long before TiVo was conceived.
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