The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office preliminarily rejected two c...
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office preliminarily rejected two claims in what’s called TiVo’s time-warp patent at the heart of its legal battle with EchoStar, TiVo said Tuesday. The patent office turned aside claims relating to a device that…
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could simultaneously store and playback multimedia content temporarily taken from a broadcast signal. The patent, granted into 2001 to TiVo founder James Barton, is central to a long-running TiVo- EchoStar lawsuit that’s in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The court in July granted EchoStar’s request to stay a June contempt order by U.S. District Judge Charles Folsom in Texarkana, Texas. The patent office’s recent finding was “entered in the normal course” before TiVo could “present its views,” the company said. The finding won’t affect EchoStar’s appeal of Folsom’s June ruling, TiVo said. The decision is an “initial step” in reexamining the patent, TiVo said. It isn’t unusual for the patent office to reverse a preliminary finding of invalidity after hearing the patent owner’s explanation, TiVo said. EchoStar countered in a statement that the patent office’s “conclusions are highly relevant to the issues on appeal as well as pending sanctions proceedings” in the district court. EchoStar said it’s “pleased” that the patent office found the two claims invalid in light of two older patents.