DISH Network and EchoStar Statement Regarding Tivo

[Scott Greczkowski]

DISH Network and EchoStar Statement Regarding Tivo

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – May 30, 2008 – DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) and EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) issued the following statement regarding Tivo:

"Today, DISH Network and EchoStar filed a lawsuit against Tivo asking a Delaware court to find that our new DVR software does not infringe Tivo’s '389 patent. The lawsuit is in response to Tivo's continued public statements that our new DVR software infringes.

“This action is independent of Tivo’s anticipated motion for contempt in the Eastern District of Texas. We believe any contempt motion by Tivo should be denied because we are in full compliance with the injunction."

 

[stone phillips420]

ahh death taxes and tivo-dish lawsuits

 

[VinceT3]

lol

 

[tomcrown1]

How many lawsuits are their in regards to TIVO???

 

[maddawg]

Man...gotta love high school...when will it stop.

 

[riffjim4069]

"The folks from Echostar have filed a complaint against TiVo. In this complaint they throw all kinds of things at TiVo hoping that something will stick."

I am sorry to say, but this appears to be desperate act from a company about to have their DVRs turned off, as well as the potential for tens of thousands of "newer technology " infringing units (i.e. 622/722) to be joined in the injunction.

It shoud be interesting, but my money (along with 150 million of E*'s money to date) is on TiVo.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

At least E*'s and Dish's legal team is never bored!!

 

[riffjim4069]

Man...gotta love high school...when will it stop.

I don't know, but the folks at VOOM should hire the TiVo legal team.

 

[TheForce]

Does TIVO even sell a DVR any more? Who uses one in their system? I thought D* was selling their own branded DVR now.

 

[Sean Mota]

There was an article yersterda of tvweek that Tivo has been losing subs and it is in financial crisis. I guess Tivo only way of survival is through these law suits and the fees that they can get from D* and others that are willing to pay them.

 

[minorthr]

There was an article yersterda of tvweek that Tivo has been losing subs and it is in financial crisis. I guess Tivo only way of survival is through these law suits and the fees that they can get from D* and others that are willing to pay them.

Well they posted a profit for the quarter so who knows.

 

[Sean Mota]

TVweek reported a substantial drop in membership that it is only predicted to drop even more. I do not know how they reported a profit but TVweek report was not that great with the number of members dropping from a year ago.

 

[ChetK]

What the HE-double-hockey-sticks is going ON here?!!! I wish E* or Dish Network would just be HONEST with us!!!

It's been years now and I keep hearing about how Tivo sued E* and now E* suing Tivo. What the heck? Why did Tivo sue E* to begin with? Why did Tivo win? What EXACTLY did E* infringe upon? How is it that E* feels they are no longer infringing upon it? This whole thing doesn't make sense.

If Tivo sued E* because of time shifting, then there is NO WAY for E* to stop infringing without doing one of two things: SHUTTING DOWN all DVR functions or paying Tivo for the license to continue doing so.

These statements from E* mean nothing to me. I remember reading the first news release stating that they "believed" they would win the original suit. Then they "believed" they would win the appeal. Now they "believe any contempt motion by Tivo should be denied because [they] are in full compliance with the injunction."

As much as I want to believe E*/Dish, I'm starting to believe they're not giving us the full story.

So, what is it EXACTLY that they got sued for and lost and, how, EXACTLY, did they become "fully compliant"?

 

[ReconPJ]

I heard DirecTV and TIVO are not going steady anymore.... OMG!

 

[Voyager6]

So, what is it EXACTLY that they got sued for and lost and, how, EXACTLY, did they become "fully compliant"?

You need to read the thread in the war zone for more complete info. http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-vs-directv-war-zone/132547-notice-tivo-injunction.html
Short summary, Tivo sued E* for patent infringement in both software and hardware. Texas jury agreed with Tivo. E* appealed and got the hardware infringement reversed but the software infringement was upheld. Now Tivo wants $$ and punishment. E* claims it's "new and improved DVR software" no longer infringes on Tivo's patents.

 

[bongohawk]

It's Lawsuit Friday!!!!

Yea!!!!

 

[navychop]

Tivo has never had a profitable year.

Their lawsuit reminds me of SCO and their unix/linux gambit.

 

[ChetK]

You need to read the thread in the war zone for more complete info. http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-vs-directv-war-zone/132547-notice-tivo-injunction.html
Short summary, Tivo sued E* for patent infringement in both software and hardware. Texas jury agreed with Tivo. E* appealed and got the hardware infringement reversed but the software infringement was upheld. Now Tivo wants $$ and punishment. E* claims it's "new and improved DVR software" no longer infringes on Tivo's patents.

OK, I read BOTH pdf documents there and I learned very little. Neither documents describe the EXACT functionality that E* used to infringe upon Tivo's patents. The only thing that I read of any value was this:

Defendants are hereby FURTHER ORDERED to, within thirty (30) days of the issuance of this order, disable the DVR functionality (i.e., disable all storage to and playback from a hard disk drive of television data) in all but 192,708 units of the Infringing Products that have been placed with an end user or subscriber. The DVR functionality, i.e., disable all storage to and playback from a hard disk drive of television data) shall not be enabled in any new placements of the Infringing Products.

So, to me, this states that E* was supposed to stop all DVR functions within 30 days. And since they did not do so, they are now out of compliance. Am I misunderstanding something here?

I repeat, what did E* do wrong? Was it a specific feature? Was it simple the whole fact that they HAD DVR's? Was it the way the code was written? What was it EXACTLY?

 

[Thomas22]

I repeat, what did E* do wrong? Was it a specific feature? Was it simple the whole fact that they HAD DVR's? Was it the way the code was written? What was it EXACTLY?

Dish infringed claim 31 of TiVo's patent:

31. A process for the simultaneous storage and play back of multimedia data, comprising the steps of:

providing a physical data source, wherein said physical data source accepts broadcast data from an input device, parses video and audio data from said broadcast data, and temporarily stores said video and audio data;

providing a source object, wherein said source object extracts video and audio data from said physical data source;

providing a transform object, wherein said transform object stores and retrieves data streams onto a storage device;

wherein said source object obtains a buffer from said transform object, said source object converts video data into data streams and fills said buffer with said streams;

wherein said source object is automatically flow controlled by said transform object;

providing a sink object, wherein said sink object obtains data stream buffers from said transform object and outputs said streams to a video and audio decoder;

wherein said decoder converts said streams into display signals and sends said signals to a display;

wherein said sink object is automatically flow controlled by said transform object;

providing a control object, wherein said control object receives commands from a user, said commands control the flow of the broadcast data through the system; and

wherein said control object sends flow command events to said source, transform, and sink objects.

 

[abricko]

I still don't get it and I've mentioned this before, E* basically admits that they did have infringing technology but now they have a software update which resolved that issues in the newer receivers.

Am I missing something here?