Scott Greczkowski

The Fight Rages On

Just when you think that the long ongoing feud between Echostar and Tivo is about to finally come to an end somebody goes and throws a monkey wrench into things.

Last night a press release came out from Echostar with a statement which read as follows.  "We are pleased that the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) granted our Petition for Re-Examination of the software claims of Tivo's '389 patent, which are the subject of Tivo’s current motion for contempt. The PTO found that there is a 'substantial new question' of patentability as to the software claims in light of prior patents that appear to render Tivo’s '389 patent invalid as obvious."

Things were not quiet from the Tivo camp who immediately issued their own statement shortly after Echostar’s statement hit the press.  It read as follows – “"EchoStar filed its latest request for reexamination after TiVo asked the United States District Court to hold EchoStar in contempt of the Court's injunction requiring EchoStar to disable its DVR functionality. An evidentiary hearing on the contempt issues is scheduled to be held on February 17 and 18, 2009.

EchoStar's latest tactic follows numerous failed attempts to invalidate TiVo's groundbreaking Time Warp patent. In 2006, the District Court rejected all of EchoStar's validity challenges after a full jury trial and the judgment of validity was affirmed by the Federal Circuit in 2008. The USPTO also conducted a prior reexamination of the Time Warp Patent at EchoStar's request, which concluded on November 11, 2008, with the USPTO issuing a Reexamination Certificate confirming the validity of all of the claims of the Time Warp Patent without any change. EchoStar's latest request for reexamination is based on a combination of two prior art references that were both already submitted to the USPTO in connection with the earlier reexamination. The USPTO grants most patent reexamination requests. Contrary to EchoStar's statement, the USPTO made no substantive findings. We are confident that the USPTO will once again confirm the validity of all of the claims of the Time Warp patent."

I am not a legal guy in any way but it appears to me that this could be good news for the folks at Echostar.  And of course this throws a huge monkey wrench in Tivo’s contempt hearings against Echostar.

In October Echostar paid Tivo over $104 million, if the Patent Trademark office does invalidate Tivo’s ‘389 patient Tivo will be able to keep the payoff they received, however if this happens it could be the end of the company as we know it.

Tivo would rather be licensing its technology and be out of the hardware business altogether.  And without this important patent it would not have much to stand on and offer and would possibly be the demise of the DVR Company as we know it today.

I would hate to see this possibly end up as the demise of Tivo, and at the same time depending on the outcome it could have a serious effect on DVR operations for Dish Network customers. 

I have said it before and will say it again; it’s time for both companies to come together and settle this thing once and for all and to work together.  Last week we saw Echostar’s amazing ViP 922 Slingloaded HD DVR introduced at CES,  could you imagine how amazing it would be if you took the 922 and added Tivo technology to it?  That would be the killer of all DVR’s out there!

It’s time for both companies to work together, as if this thing finishes in the courts a lot of people are going to be hurt by the outcome.

DirecTV to Dish Out Obama Inauguration

The folks at DirecTV will be offering a special interactive Inauguration channel next week on January 20^th.  From 10am to 5pm ET this special interactive channel will cover 8 different live channels all covering the inauguration of the 44^th President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Viewers will be able to watch all the coverage all at once as it happens, or will be able to select the channel they want to watch and press select on their remote to watch that channel in full screen.

 In addition to the 8 channel mosaic, DirecTV will be running a scrolling Blog letting you know what’s happening and what’s coming up plus commentary of all developments.

The interactive inauguration channel will be carried on channels 102 and 152.  DirecTV will also be providing the interactive channel in standard definition and high definition formats.

For more details on this DirecTV special event please CLICK HERE.

More Satellite Radio Changes Coming

Satellite Radio customers are going to wake up tomorrow and find that their satellite radio lineups have changed again, but unlike the last change which happened in November many folks will be happy about the changes.

Back in November Sirius XM combined many of the Sirius XM music channels so that many of the music channels offered were the same between both services.  In doing this a number of popular channels were removed from the Sirius XM lineups.   These channel drops were unannounced by Sirius XM and many customers were mad at the unannounced changes.

The folks from Sirius XM have been listening to the complaints and will be bringing back a few of the channels that were removed tomorrow.  Returning to the air waves (or is that Satellite waves?) is The Boneyard,  The Strobe and Backspin.

In addition Sirius XM is also bringing back a number of popular shows such as Boombox and and Vox Choral.

It is good to see the folks at Sirius XM are listening… and I hope they are listening to this.  My favorite XM channel Cinemagic returned to the XM Radio lineup when the holiday music went away.  I was pleased to see Cinemagic return, however the Cinemagic that exists now on XM is not the same Cinemagic that was taken away from us in November.  Missing from Cinemagic is all the great spoken movie dialog that would play between the scores for the movie they were playing.  This dialog helped tie the music together with the movie, and there was times where I would hear dialog and music from a movie I have never seen before and after hearing them I went out and purchased the DVD to enjoy that movie in my home.  Without the dialog between the music Cinemagic now is nothing more then movie music.  Please return Cinemagic back to its old format!

Speaking of Music

After the November satellite radio changes many folks left satellite radio in favor of a new service called “Slacker Radio.”  Slacker is an internet based music service which lets you create your own stations and automatically creates stations based on your tastes.  Buy purchasing a separate Slacker Radio from stores like Best Buy, Slacker fans have been able to take that Slacker experience everywhere they go.

The need to purchase a radio to take Slacker with you everywhere might now be a thing of the past for many as yesterday a free Slacker Radio application was made available to iPhone users.  In addition last week Slacker software was made available for Blackberry users.  This free software lets you enjoy the Slacker Radio experience anywhere.

I first saw this new Slacker Radio software last Thursday night at the Showstoppers Blogger event which was held in Las Vegas.  And when I saw it I wanted to have it.  When the software became officially available yesterday I downloaded it and have been loving it ever since.

If you love music check out the free Slacker Radio service at http://www.slacker.com.  I am proud to admit that I am a Slacker. J

We will see you next time here in “The Satellite Dish!”

Posted by Scott Greczkowski on January 14, 2009 | Comments (1)