TiVo won a $73+ million patent judgment from EchoStar (Dish Network) today. (See TiVo story in Bloomberg.com or in Reuters)
TiVo has lost hundreds of millions of dollars while delivering a wonderful product. Their competition just took their research and ideas and treated it like it was in the public domain. Today’s jury decision gives TiVo life, since it can now license its technology to EchoStar and the many other cable/satellite companies who have appropriated the intellectual property. Who knows, maybe some day TiVo will make a profit!
The decision reassures our dachshund pack that its TiVo service will likely remain available in their golden years. Audit (pictured in the icon) was particularly worried that she would be stuck watching reruns of Judge Judy if TiVo went under.
Of course, the free and almost-free DVR’s delivered by cable companies will now have a cost when TiVo gets licensing fees from the other businesses. For some reason, the fact that everyone — including consumers — will have to pay something to reward the TiVo innovators doesn’t bother me.
Danny has two Replay TVs, and that company just folded (or bought by someone else?) after years of never making profits, just like TiVo…it’s intriguing how a company can be capitalized for so long, losing money every year…Amazon.com being a case in point?
I’ve gotten heavy use out of his Replay TV, simply by watching what he watches…somehow I can make it all blend with the other 2 TVs in the house that are free-range TVs that I can channel surf on.
Danny noted the TiVo settlement today, one I didn’t even know was in court. Did Replay also run with the same technology? Hmmm….it would be unlike Danny to buy something that hinted of technology theft.
I don’t know that us average consumers can or should tell which company stole what from which other company. Most of the intellectual property disputes are beyond my ability to adjudicate while shopping in a store. But, I am happy that TiVo had a good day in court.