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Microsoft Files Suit Against TiVo

Time: 08:20 EST/13:20 GMT | News Source: Toms Hardware Guide | Posted By: Chris Hedlund

Microsoft accuses TiVo of patent infringement in four cases and filed a trade complaint to prevent TiVo from importing its set-top boxes to the U.S. The patents relate to program schedules, program selection, interface controls as well as DVR use based on program rating.

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Displaying Comments 1 through 11 of 11

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#1 By 2960 (72.205.26.164) at Wednesday, January 26, 2011 11:28:52 AM

Tivo has been doing this stuff way, way longer than Microsoft has. It's not even close.

#2 By 15406 (209.87.228.158) at Wednesday, January 26, 2011 01:01:04 PM

Aren't software patents wonderful? And despite their total awesomeness, they in no way impede innovation or fair competition.

#3 By 16797 (99.236.143.109) at Wednesday, January 26, 2011 01:28:15 PM

It is something a court will decide. Why is that a problem?

#4 By 15406 (209.87.228.158) at Wednesday, January 26, 2011 02:17:26 PM

#4: It's a problem because of the bigger picture. With overly-broad software patents on vague methods, it's entirely too easy to kill innovations from startups and incumbent competitors. The only way to defend against this scourge is to have a M.A.D.-esque patent portfolio of your own to leverage against anyone trying to sue you, but this doesn't work against patent trolls, and it raises the market-entry bar to ridiculous heights. Tech giants like MS, Apple, Intel etc can sit by and watch startups and competitors work on things and, if their tech gains too much buzz or traction, kill it with the stroke of a lawyer's pen. The loser in this sad drama are the end-users, naturally.

#5 By 9589 (68.17.52.2) at Wednesday, January 26, 2011 04:00:22 PM

This has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but I thought I would attempt to add a little mirth to your day:

Subject: Bill Gates vs GM

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and
affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives (!?!), read
on....

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX) Bill Gates
reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and
stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry
has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the
gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors
issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we
would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would
crash.........Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road,
you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway
for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close
all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it and reopen the
windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply
accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a
left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in
which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by
the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive -
but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning
lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An
Illegal Operation' warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?'
before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car
would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously
lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio
antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers
would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the
controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn
the engine off.
and finally....
11. When all else fails, you would have to call
'customer service' in some foreign country and be instructed in some
foreign language how to fix your car yourself.
Please share this with your friends who love - but
sometimes hate - their computer

#6 By 16797 (99.236.143.109) at Wednesday, January 26, 2011 04:10:49 PM

#5 On the other hand, patents are there to protect small companies too, right?

I remember that some small companies did win patent suits against MS. And boy, did they win, like BIG $$$.

So, it works both ways.

P.S.
What you should be worried about is this: http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2011/01/canada-wages-youtube-war-against-metered-internet-billing.ars

#7 By 7754 (206.169.247.114) at Wednesday, January 26, 2011 09:17:24 PM

#1: wrong:

TiVo history (~1998/99): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiVo

MSN TV, aka WebTV (~1995/96): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_TV

#8 By 95132 (184.77.5.233) at Thursday, January 27, 2011 06:29:49 AM

"Microsoft said that it is in talks with TiVo in an attempt to settle the matter outside of the courtroom. "
---
That's all you need to know. MS going after tivo after tivo went after att which uses ms set-top platform, the intent is to get tivo to back off or face it's own set of problems. payback is a beoootch aint it tivo.

#9 By 15406 (209.87.228.158) at Thursday, January 27, 2011 09:23:24 AM

#7: You know very well that it's a rare thing indeed for the small fry or startup to pull off a win like that. Small outfits do not have the resources to file thousands of patents per year like MS, IBM et al do. It's already at the point where any software more complex than Hello World violates somebody's patent.

#10 By 28801 (65.90.202.10) at Thursday, January 27, 2011 01:06:22 PM

DVRs are becoming irrelevant. I can usually see any show that I have missed on Comcast On Demand. Additionally, web video content providers like NETFLIX and HULU Plus are already supplanting regular TV viewing. The only thing I will miss on my DVR is the 30 second commercial skip. The main thing I won’t miss is the constant DVR space management.

#11 By 15406 (209.87.228.158) at Thursday, January 27, 2011 02:39:02 PM

#11: They'll have to pry my DVR away from my cold, dead hands. I don't know where you live, but here the VoD stuff is so hyper-compressed that it looks like an effing voxel game from the 90's. The selection is limited. I don't record so many shows that space is a problem on my tiny 80GB disk, which typically runs at <30% used (especially since the wife tuned out of American Idol and it's 3hrs per day 5 days a week nonsense.) Netflix and Hulu have no firm presence here in the GWN, and the incumbent ISPs are working hard to keep it that way.

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