TiVo granted patent for Season Pass functionality

[morac]

From Zatz Not Funny!:

TiVo has added another major patent to its portfolio. Filed back in 1999, the patent office just granted a patent for the season pass functionality. The way the patent is written it looks to apply to virtually every DVR out there since it specifies scheduling recordings based on free space and priority (for conflict resolution). There is a workaround as the article mentions, but it would require the scheduling and conflict resolution functionality to be done on a server somewhere (not out of the question).

It'll be interesting to see what comes out of this.

[johnf@home]

Originally Posted by morac

From Zatz Not Funny!:

TiVo has added another major patent to its portfolio. Filed back in 1999, the patent office just granted a patent for the season pass functionality. The way the patent is written it looks to apply to virtually every DVR out there since it specifies scheduling recordings based on free space and priority (for conflict resolution). There is a workaround as the article mentions, but it would require the scheduling and conflict resolution functionality to be done on a server somewhere (not out of the question).

It'll be interesting to see what comes out of this.

What comes out of this is another whole long round of legal wrangling

Granting a patent just means that as far as the patent office can tell the work in question is not covered by an earlier patent, and is within the narrow technical guidelines of what is patentable.

The serious questions as to the actual validity of the patent - was there prior art before the patent was filed, and/or was the idea "obvious to a skilled practitioner in the field", and thus not patentable - will only be evaluated when there is a challenge to the patent.

[morac]

Originally Posted by johnf@home

The serious questions as to the actual validity of the patent - was there prior art before the patent was filed, and/or was the idea "obvious to a skilled practitioner in the field", and thus not patentable - will only be evaluated when there is a challenge to the patent.

I guess that would take another ten years?

[comgenius1]

I have this vision of the tivo big wigs enjoying a good laugh right now and all the cable companies with dvr's sending their legal departments into a frenzy...

[innocentfreak]

From some of what I have read, it may not be as big of a win as people are thinking. IIRC the wording makes references also to suggestions when figuring out priorities as a result since no other DVRs use suggestions it may not apply.

[morac]

Originally Posted by innocentfreak

From some of what I have read, it may not be as big of a win as people are thinking. IIRC the wording makes references also to suggestions when figuring out priorities as a result since no other DVRs use suggestions it may not apply.

The patent does make reference to "fuzzy" recordings in the "Methods Applied to Scheduling Recording Versus Available Storage Space" section. Based on the description they are suggestions and the patent states they are used to fill up the available space on the drive.

I don't know if that necessarily puts all other DVR manufacturers in the clear though.