[mythtv-users] Tivo suing everyone in sight over DVR patents

[Simon Hobson]

Johnny wrote:

>  > Well that is just from the abstract. The legally binding part is what
>>  they put in the claims I didn't take the time to look at the details
>  > of that.


>Here is the patent:
>http://www.google.com/patents?id=IeoIAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
>
>The part they lawyers really argue about is the 61 claims at the end
>(page 20) that precisely define what the patent covers.

Yes, I was once told to just read the first few claims. The key bit 
of this is Claim 1, and MythTV does not infringe upon it in my 
opinion (IANAL). If it came down to it, what Myth does has prior art 
- such as the (expensive) systems used way before this patent for 
instant replays during live sports coverage. Early onces used tape 
and a mechanism to looping up a lot of tape to the recorder could 
keep recording while the playback machine was shuttled back and forth 
as required, I believe some used laser disk with a separate readback 
head though I stand to be corrected on that.

Anyway, the TiVo patent is clearly for something that captures and 
processes the signal for ease of playback via a 'media switch' 
without much CPU involvement - ie there's a lot of hardware in there 
to avoid needing a powerful processor capable of moving the data 
around and encoding/decoding it. Myth doesn't do that, it simply 
stores the received signal*, stores it on disk as-is*, and the cpu is 
responsible for shuttling the bits around*.
* each on of these is specifically different to what is claimed in the patent.

However, this is the dangerous part - there is nothing at all to stop 
TiVo suing the developers, nothing at all. The case could well be 
thrown out with prejudice at the first hearing, but that would still 
cost the defendants (probably a fair amount) to arrive at that 
hearing suitably prepared. Tivo would be very stupid to do so though, 
they would know that they would lose, and that would a) cost them, 
and b) put them at a disadvantage in future cases against others. 
That's probably the only restraining factor.

That applies all the time, it's not specific to his Tivo case.
-- 
Simon Hobson

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