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TiVo has no beef with Cox, Comcast and DirecTV. But everyone else?

June 3rd, 2009, 4:35 pm · 11 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

UPDATE, 10 p.m.: The saga continues. Dish wins a stay of a court injunction to disable DVRs as it appeals patent infringement case by TiVo. See Reuters story.
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TiVo

Just to be clear, Dish Network, which lost a patent infringement case (again) to TiVo on Tuesday, was ordered by a federal judge to stop it already, which essentially turns Dish DVRs into plain-ol’ boxes.

U.S. District Judge David Folsom is giving Dish 30 days to “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 …” according to the court order. The “infringing” DVRs include these models: DP-501, DP-508, DP-510, DP-522, DP-625, DP-721, DP-921, and DP-942.(Read the court order yourself via PDF: TiVo wins (again).)

(Yikes!)

Will this really happen? The same court ordered Dish (when it was part of EchoStar) to dismantle its DVRs 3 years ago and the two companies have been stuck in court sorting things out. Of course, as TiVo continues to win cases, it also collects penalties, plus interest, from Dish. Dish has appealed and the two show up again in court on June 26. 

Could this happen to your non-TiVo DVR? Possibly. 

All a TiVo spokesman would tell me is that TiVo does have license agreements with Comcast, Cox and DirecTV. Some of these range from the companies rebranding  TiVo’s actual software for their own customers to just a license agreement. 

TiVo would love to have similar partnership with all TV companies that have DVRs, he said. Those, presumably, would include Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse plus a plethora of others who offer TV service outside of Orange County. At the moment, no other patent lawsuits are pending between TiVo and other companies.

Based on the original 2006 court order for a permanent injunction against Dish, the patent in question is this one, dealing with ”Multimedia time warping systen.” I’m not a lawyer but the patent #6,233,389 does seem to cover the gist of the whole point of a DVR: to pause, rewind and record live TV.

Thanks to Michael Doss, OCR’s go-to research guy, for tracking down the lawsuit. 

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 11 Comments

  • Ruth Loud says:
    June 3, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    Why doesn’t TiVo make the same contract to Echostar that they have with Comcast, Direct TV and Cox. I’m sure it would clear the air and give TiVo more money coming in.

    Post Reply
    • Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress says:
      June 3, 2009 at 9:21 pm

      You’d think… But apparently EchoStar went a different route — they attempted to remove any infringing technology in their DVRs. Not good enough. Judge slapped them with contempt of court for doing so. Will it stand? Who knows? As mentioned, court first made this ruling in 2006!

      Post Reply
  • risingup says:
    June 3, 2009 at 10:09 pm

    I wish TWC would have learned and used the Tivo technology to make a better product. When I had Dish, several years ago, their DVR functions were great. TWC’s DVR functionality is REALLY bad….

    Post Reply
  • RL says:
    June 4, 2009 at 4:05 am

    Can the reporter find out if DISH customers will be let out of their contracts penalty-free if their DVRs are disabled?

    Post Reply
    • Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress says:
      June 5, 2009 at 6:40 am

      RL — I asked on yours and other subscribers’ behalf and Dish won’t address this issue, yet. Though if your contract says you get a DVR and you don’t, my personal interpretation is that Dish is breaking its contract. Nonetheless, here is the company’s response: “We are pleased that the Federal Appeals Court in Washington temporarily stayed the district court’s order in the Tivo litigation. DISH Network customers can continue using their DVRs. We believe that we have strong grounds for appeal.”

      Post Reply
  • Liz says:
    June 4, 2009 at 11:04 am

    Tivo needs to lose. They are too greedy.

    Post Reply
  • Joe Citizen says:
    June 4, 2009 at 11:50 am

    Liz,
    Your you are wrong.
    TIVO invented the technology over 10 years ago and has not been profitable yet due to all of the patent infringement cases it has endured over the last 5 years .
    They are not too greedy just protective of their technology.(wouldn’t you)
    Once you use a TIVO you realize what a far superior interface it has compared to other DVR’s.
    I say great for TIVO this will help them stem off bankruptcy and continue to produce a great product.

    Post Reply
  • Nancy says:
    June 5, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    Whoa…I love my Dish DVR…I just got two HD/DVRs last week! Thanks for providing all this info, even tho I’m not too thrilled about it. Do you happen to know if the “infringing” DVRs you listed in your article are the only ones that are affected?

    Post Reply
  • Jim Henry says:
    June 5, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    The court order only lists these models as “infringing products” and the order to turn off the DVR capability only affects the “infringing products”:
    …Defendants’ following DVR receivers (collectively the “Infringing Products”): DP-501, DP-508, DP-510, DP-522, DP-625, DP-721, DP-921, and DP-942.

    That list does not seem to include any of the current DVR offerings from Dish:
    DuoDVR ViP 612, 622, 722, and 722k. (I assume the model numbers would be DP-612, DP-622, DP-722, and DP-722k.)

    If Dish did manage to do a successful design around with its newest DVRs, and one would wonder why the TiVo lawyers didn’t get these new models on the list if they do infringe, then worst case would be that Dish swaps out the older infringing units for the newer non-infringing units. Time-consuming, disruptive, and expensive to be sure. But better than Dish losing a big chunk of its customers.

    Post Reply

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