It took a Tex. jury 2 hours, including a cigarette break, to decide EchoStar willfully infringed 9 sections of a TiVo patent on DVR “time warp” technology, but it will take much longer to sort how far into the DVR world the ruling extends. It’s not clear how the ruling, the appeals and an EchoStar countersuit affect other pay-TV competitors and manufacturers who supply them DVRs, analysts said Fri. But one things is certain, analysts said: The Tex. jury’s decision will be worth more to TiVo than the $74 million it was awarded.
COLORADO SPRINGS -- Inmarsat and Mobile Satellite Ventures executives touted the mobile capabilities of their current and next generation voice and data systems to a different audience here at the National Space Symposium -- military officials in full uniform rather than potential investors in suits and ties -- and they received a different response. Queries about data rates, handset size, price and video capabilities took a back seat to one oft-asked question: What are commercial satellite companies doing to keep new mobile technologies out of terrorist hands?
COLORADO SPRINGS -- Inmarsat and Mobile Satellite Ventures executives touted the mobile capabilities of their current and next generation voice and data systems to a different audience here at the National Space Symposium -- military officials in full uniform rather than potential investors in suits and ties -- and they received a different response. Queries about data rates, handset size, price and video capabilities took a back seat to one oft-asked question: What are commercial satellite companies doing to keep new mobile technologies out of terrorist hands?
Dual TV tuners on a single PC card from Nvidia will engender more “place shifting” applications for notebooks, portable videogames and media players and other devices, the company said Wed. Its DualTV card is expected to be among a class of such devices, like the ATSC minituner for laptop PCs that Thomson showed at Berlin’s IFA last summer and is expected to roll out at product briefings for the U.S. this month. Besides 2 tuners, the DualTV card offers personal video recording functions, Nvidia’s MediaSqueeze disc-space- saving technology, and support for Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition OS. The $169 card lets PC users schedule recordings of TV shows for viewing later, record 2 shows simultaneously or watch one channel while recording another, as well as pause and rewind live and recorded TV shows on the PC’s hard drive. The card also enables place- shifting. Programs recorded with the DualTV tuner can be transferred to personal media players and other portable devices with memories and displays, and live and recorded shows can be streamed throughout a home to Media Center extensions, Nvidia said. The MediaSqueeze technology lets users store more content on a PC’s hard disc or a portable device’s memory. Users can record shows at a lower bit-rate than normal or “transrate” previously recorded programs to a lower bit-rate to save disc space, without significant loss in picture quality, Nvidia said. The DualTV card was certified by the Imaging Science Foundation, signifying it meets the organization’s standards for home theater-quality TV tuning and recording, Nvidia said.
A jury in Tex. will learn more than jurors ever wanted to know about DVR gear, as EchoStar and TiVo argue as to whether EchoStar stole TiVo’s “time warp” patent, in an infringement case that opened Wed. in Marshall, Tex. The case hinges on whether EchoStar’s DVR uses TiVo technology. TiVo wants heavy but undisclosed damages, pegged at $100 million by analysts. An EchoStar motion to transfer the TiVo case to federal court in Cal. was denied. News reports said the federal courts in Marshall and other east Tex. cities are known for fast work on patent cases. An EchoStar spokeswoman had no comment on the day’s opening remarks by lawyers for both sides. EchoStar said in a March 10K filing it “intends to vigorously defend this case.” But should Dish Network lose the time warp fight, it may face substantial damages -- perhaps 3 times what jurors fix as lost TiVo revenue, the EchoStar filing warned. Damages could include “treble damages and/or an injunction that could require us to materially modify certain user-friendly features that we currently offer consumers,” Dish said. The TiVo suit alleges infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,233,389 for pausing live TV. An EchoStar suit against TiVo and Humax U.S.A. alleges infringement of 4 U.S. patents on DVR technology. An EchoStar spokeswoman said she didn’t know what the 4 countersuit patents protect.
A jury in Tex. will learn more than jurors ever wanted to know about DVR gear, as EchoStar and TiVo argue as to whether EchoStar stole TiVo’s “time warp” patent, in an infringement case that opened Wed. in Marshall, Tex. The case hinges on whether EchoStar’s DVR uses TiVo technology. TiVo wants heavy but undisclosed damages, pegged at $100 million by analysts. An EchoStar motion to transfer the TiVo case to federal court in Cal. was denied. News reports said the federal courts in Marshall and other east Tex. cities are known for fast work on patent cases. An EchoStar spokeswoman had no comment on the day’s opening remarks by lawyers for both sides. EchoStar said in a March 10K filing it “intends to vigorously defend this case.” But should Dish Network lose the time warp fight, it may face substantial damages -- perhaps 3 times what jurors fix as lost TiVo revenue, the EchoStar filing warned. Damages could include “treble damages and/or an injunction that could require us to materially modify certain user-friendly features that we currently offer consumers,” Dish said. The TiVo suit alleges infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,233,389 for pausing live TV. An EchoStar suit against TiVo and Humax U.S.A. alleges infringement of 4 U.S. patents on DVR technology. An EchoStar spokeswoman said she didn’t know what the 4 countersuit patents protect.
SAN JOSE -- An industry group set an ambitious schedule to produce a protocol for capturing and sharing usage data records on IPTV networks. The data are needed for international standards for everything from rights management and content decisions to network management and accounting, said Kelly Anderson, pres. of the group, IPDR.org (Internet Protocol Data Record).
Cox’s biggest challenge is luring “Echo Boomers” and their Baby Boomer parents with new services, portable devices and mobile content, said Pres. Patrick Esser. Cox’s products must remain attractive to the changing tastes of those 150 million people, he told a Media Institute lunch gathering. “Echo Boomers want mobile content…and they will take their parents right along with them,” Esser said. “They've been pausing live TV for years” and prefer to use a PC over a TV, he added.
Retailers are adopting a wait & see approach to TiVo’s move to offer PVR hardware free to consumers signing a one, 2 or 3 year subscription to the TiVo service.
Jury selection is set to begin this week in TiVo’s patent infringement suit against EchoStar. A trial before U.S. Dist. Judge David Folsom, Marshall, Tex., is scheduled to start March 27. The heart of the case is TiVo’s patented time-shifting technology allowing PVR owners to pause live TV and skip commercials. TiVo has been issued more than 70 patents, including one covering a multimedia time-warping system in 2001. The patent, which TiVo filed for in 1998, has 56 claims with others relating to methods of processing various multimedia streams such as audio and video at low cost and storage format. The outcome of the suit for damages will likely determine whether TiVo launches legal action against other PVR suppliers, analysts said. EchoStar introduced its combo satellite receiver/PVR in 2001 using a proprietary operating system, but switched to Linux software a year later.