DirecTV Group, Dish are sued over patents

[dfergie]

DirecTV Group Inc. and Dish Network Corp., the two largest U.S. satellite-TV providers, and seven other companies were sued by a trust associated with Alcatel-Lucent SA over patented video-compression technology.
Multimedia Patent Trust, the patent owner, also sued EchoStar Corp., which makes digital set-top boxes for Dish.



Source & More: The Rocky Mountain News

 

[DWS44]

Wow...Dish getting sued...that's unusual! LOL

 

[Rey]

someone else looking for money too, geesh!

 

[dfergie]

someone else looking for money too, geesh!

My thoughts exactly...

 

[LER]

And I wonder which patents. Prior Art? And what standard(s) are involved?
(cross-licensing, etc).

Hrm.

 

[goaliebob99]

Ok, so they are sueing them for violating patents of using motion video with compression. Why arnt these guys going after bradcom, who makes the compression chips, as well as all the braudcasters who use compression to transmit video, as well as cable company's who use compression to transmit their cable channels, and more importantly, why are they not going after the ATSC who sets the compression standards, or the Motion Picture Expert Group who "created" the compression standards. I see D* and E* teaming up for this one. I just home E* is smart and hires D*'s lawyers.

 

[iwc5893]

Yep...just a bunch of people looking to sue somebody to make a buck. If you go to their website (I won't give them the benefit of search engines hitting on it), on their homepage they have a link labeled "Lawsuits".

 

[LER]

Sounds about right for Alcatel. See Evan Brown - Does Your Employer Own Your Thoughts? for a sad story about a personal friend of mine that was basically Bankrupted by them over Intellectual Property.

Very scary story for all of us in the tech fields.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Look at the Tivo and TV Guide Lawsuit. Both these companies sued Echostar and ended up getting something.

Generally Directv tends to settle these lawsuits quickly, and generally over pays for everything. However they will work with a company such as Tivo before going out and developing their own version.

Dish is just cheap, they won't work with anyone that wants a piece of the pie for use of their technology, and when they get sued they drag it out as long as possible.

Neither company is perfect, but I think Dish Network saves more money doing it the way they do it.

 

[snathanb]

Ok, so they are sueing them for violating patents of using motion video with compression. Why arnt these guys going after bradcom, who makes the compression chips, as well as all the braudcasters who use compression to transmit video, as well as cable company's who use compression to transmit their cable channels, and more importantly, why are they not going after the ATSC who sets the compression standards, or the Motion Picture Expert Group who "created" the compression standards. I see D* and E* teaming up for this one. I just home E* is smart and hires D*'s lawyers.

It's not about whether or not you are using someone's technology. It's whether or not you are paying royalties to do so.

They went after Microsoft for violation of MP3 and MPEG patents (held by the former AT&T Bell Labs, where much of the development is done) and won a 1.3 Billion dollar award ( that is currently in appeal )

If they went to bat against Microsoft and their army of legal representation and won 1.3 Billion, what do you suppose they are going to do Echostar?

Alcatel-Lucent is not some fly-by-night little guy trying to make a quick buck. They have a rich heritage on the Lucent side of the house, going back over a hundred years in the US. Much of the technological innovations in the US came out of AT&T's Bell Labs.

If they have set their legal sites on D* and E*, I feel sorry for them both.

 

[JosephB]

How is the company that builds the boxes for Echostar suing them for the technology in said boxes? What kind of nutjob lawyers does Charlie have writing his contracts if there is no waiver of liability in that relationship?

 

[Pepper]

You misread. Echostar builds the boxes for Dish Network. Both Echostar and Dish Network are being sued by the patent owners.

 

[JosephB]

You misread. Echostar builds the boxes for Dish Network. Both Echostar and Dish Network are being sued by the patent owners.

Ah yes, missed a comma or two there.

 

[dfergie]

Moved to the General Forum...

 

[mruk69]

Times must be bad huh?
Companies are losing their ass in this economy and will do anything to make money. I wonder who holds the patent for drinking beer?
Rascals thats what they are, bloody raskals.

 

[Smith P.]

Stealing DNS programs - $100M fine, stealing TiVo patent - $100M fine, stealing Aclatel patents - ??? [$1.3B].

Good trend for the Company...
Road to Hell !

 

[berck]

They went after Microsoft for violation of MP3 and MPEG patents (held by the former AT&T Bell Labs, where much of the development is done) and won a 1.3 Billion dollar award ( that is currently in appeal )

It actually been settled

 

[Foxbat]

This is right up there with Microsoft going after GPS maker TomTom (see Microsoft brief).

[TV LAWYER MODE]It's one thing if the company claiming infringement comes out a few years after the technology shows up, but DBS has been out now for almost 15 years, and NOW Dish and DirecTV are infringing? Sorry, you're too late; you failed to protect your patent.[/TV LAWYER MODE]

 

[Foxbat]

Stealing DNS programs - $100M fine, stealing TiVo patent - $100M fine, stealing Aclatel patents - ??? [$1.3B].

Good trend for the Company...
Road to Hell !

Any actual patent violations are probably embedded in the chips and third-party hardware that Echostar and DirecTV use to provide DBS. If they license a solution from Broadcom and Broadcom didn't pay Lucent licensing fees, does that mean that the DBS providers should be the ones to pony-up the $$$? If they buy a room full of Tandberg MPEG-4 encoders and Tandberg DID pay, then the patent holder should come after DBS for using said equipment.

That would be like the guy who invented Interval Windshield Wipers coming after Hertz because they rent cars with that technology or your local car dealer because they sell those same cars.

Anyway, it's what we all need, yet another excuse for DBS providers to raise their rates. Maybe the Luddites had it right all this time...

 

[Smith P.]

Questioning looks right, but for sure those lawsuits coming to companies with deepest packets.