Fergie's Tech Blog

Trial Over TiVo Patent Begins in Texas

An AP newswire article by David Koenig, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Lawyers for TiVo Inc. were expected to tell a federal court jury Wednesday that satellite-TV broadcaster Dish Network stole the technology used in TiVo's popular device for recording and replaying live television.

Lawyers for EchoStar Communications Corp., the parent of Dish Network, planned to argue that their client didn't infringe on TiVo's patent for a "multimedia time warping system" and instead invented their own digital video recorder.

If TiVo wins, it could collect millions in damages to boost its sagging financial performance and gain leverage to force cable operators to pay royalties for offering customers TiVo-like service. Analysts say the outcome also will affect the price of TiVo stock, which is up 38 percent so far this year.

More here.

posted by Fergie @ 3/29/2006 08:11:00 AM