TiVo has been in a legal battle with Dish Network and its former parent company EchoStar for more than four years over the design of their digital video recorders (DVR), which TiVo claims are patent-infringing. Now, the company has challenged Verizon and AT&T for the designs of their FiOS and U-verse DVRs.
Yesterday, TiVo filed complaints in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas for infringement of the same three patents that Dish Network allegedly infringed upon back in 2005. The complaints seek damages for past infringement and permanent injunctions on the infringing hardware.
One of the patents in the complaint, casually referred to as the "Time Warp Patent," has been under review by the US Patent and Trademark office for the case against Dish Network and EchoStar. Yesterday, Dish said it believes this review will result in "a Final Office Action invalidating the software claims of TiVo's patent. These software claims are the very same claims that EchoStar was found to have infringed in the contempt ruling now pending on appeal."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
