Didn't that TVGuide logo go back to a lawsuit about EPGs and the former TVGuide parent, Gemstar at the time?
FWIW, yes. Gemstar/TV Guide (TV Guide Inc., which I believe was the magazine and media portion of the business, was under Gemstar/TV Guide) had sued ALL the MVPD's including DirecTV, and all the cable companies (I can't remember if they also sued the set-top-box makers, as well) claiming those entities violated Gemstar/TV Guide patents relating to EPG display and metadata. In this period, I think Macrovision now known as Rovi and since remaned TiVo had just taken ownership of Gemstar/TV Guide, I THINK. Before that News Corp had owned it, and before that some interesting individuals who founded Gemstar and, I think left an UGLY legal legacy for News Corp to deal with as the US Gov sued Gemstar/TV Guide in 2003 and a court imposed a penalty of some 5 million plus, I THINK! Any way, just a interesting history of Gemstar who later purchased TV Guide inc.
Anyway, the first case to go to trial was against Echostar. Echo had
prevailed in that case, but an appeals court ruled that there was some legal technical whatever mistake or error and a whole NEW trial was required. About 2 weeks after that ruling, Gemstar/TV Guide (owned at this time by Macrovision to be renamed Rovi then to be renamed TiVo) and Echostar announced a settlement: Echo would pay some 200-300 million and receive LIFETIME license to ALL Gemstar/TV Guide technology (use of patent portfolio) and would
agree to place a TV Guide bug on all its EPG's. That's why the TV Guide bug has been on Dish EPG's for years even-though Dish has NEVER used Rovi (TV Guide) metadata. Echostar has probably used some of the Gemstar/TV Guide tech, as I too remember Ergen stating they would do so on a long ago Charlie Chat.
BTW, this settlement is nearly identical to the TiVo vs. Echostar settlement. It is my opinion Ergen had this settlement on the table for TiVo for YEARS, but Tom Rogers was going for the big pay-day, but after all the years and mostly wins by TiVo in the infamous "rouge court" (a term used by the late Justice Scalia to describe the court in Marshall, TX, who will be getting a WHOLE LOT LESS patent cases--IF ANY-- filed there from now on) in Texas handling the trial, an appeals court ruled that Echo/Dish's workaround, put in place soon after the lawsuit was filed, required a NEW trial to determine if that workaround violated TiVo's patents. The only next step for TiVo was to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court, highly unlikely for the SCOTUS to even want to hear it, let alone the TIME it would take to wait and hear if SCOTUS would. So, Tom Rogers cried "uncle" and when asked why he took the settlement rather than follow-up on his "gun to the head" LOTS more money to take from Echo/Dish original strategy, Mr. Rogers simply said, "I did not want to wait for the Supreme Court." At this time TiVo was close to running out of money, and so much money had gone to the costs of suing Echostar that it took a big toll on the modest profits TiVo was able to squeeze out in those days. In the end, Ergen won again with a settlement on his terms, I believe.
The TV Guide bug was still on my H3's with the original UI. However, I've not seen the TV Guide bug at all since the change to the Carbon UI. Also, I've noticed that on my TiVo's, there is now a copyright notice stating guide data copyright "Rovi" and not TiVo. The Rovi name is DEAD and changed to TiVo, and yet my TiVo's have NEW copyright notice for "Rovi." I can't figure that one out.
It would be interesting what TiVo would require Dish to display as a copyright notice, if that is required. I would not be surprised for Dish EPG data to have a copyright notice for "TiVo." That would be funny, and it shows the long history of how all these companies are bought and sold and change names and come around to place that has Dish possibly acknowledging TiVo as a copyright. Of course, the NEW TiVo bought by Rovi is NOT the old management. The new TiVo is much more like Rovi in that they see their future and largest revenue from its patent portfolio, suing everyone (oh, wait, that was TiVo's business model under ol' Tom), and providing EPG metadata, NOT the in the retail DVR biz. There are things happening and job cuts at TiVo that seem to move in the direction of leaving the retail DVR biz and keep alive the S4-S6 series as they have received the latest updates. IMHO, TiVo seems to have a hatchet over the S3 series, a still perfectly good DVR, but I'm sure they would prefer to retire them, and the last "Upgrade from S3 to Bolt" push seems to have me nervous about my S3's, which I LOVE.
Anyway, that was all to the best of my memory, but it really stuck to me all these years. All these companies due now is sue each other for leverage. What a MASSIVE waste of taxpayer resources to deal with such lawsuits that have, at best, questionable merit, and enrich a tiny place in Texas who have turned their courtroom into a cash cow for the community.
