TiVo is suing EchoStar, the parent of the Dish satellite TV service, claiming it stole TiVo's technology that allows users to digitally record one show while watching another.Read that again. Obviously they didn't invent the idea of recording one show while watching another - VCRs were always able to do that. Obviously to anyone who had ever programmed a computer, the idea of doing it digitally is completely trivial - it is a matter of getting the software/hardware combination to work fast enough. So maybe EchoStar some stole Tivo's hard work in getting things to work right? Apparently not
EchoStar attorney Harold McElhinny has been telling the Texas jury that EchoStar invented a DVR that uses technology different from that of TiVo. But it is an uphill battle, Clark said, in part because of the legal rule known as the "doctrine of equivalents."So what was it that Tivo did to deserve a monopoly? Apparently they were first to market, and had the misfortune to have a sufficiently bad business model that they need a government bailout.The rule protects patent-holders from those who would use slightly different technology in order to build a device with substantially the same functionality as a product that already has been patented. The rule could be particularly relevant in this case because TiVo introduced DVRs to the public and its name has become synonymous with the technology.
