Motorola is Suing TiVo over DVR patents

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. is suing TiVo over violation of some of the multiple patents it holds over digital video recorders.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Motorola owns many DVR patents, including some from the mid 1990s that it purchased from a group of engineers and their company Imedia. They were filed years before the founding of TiVo.  “TiVo is attempting to assert its patents against technology disclosed and claimed in Motorola Mobility’s patents, despite the fact that Motorola Mobility’s patents were filed more than three years before TiVo’s patents,” said Motorola in its complaint, reports Reuters.

The company is suing TiVo in federal court in Texarkana, Texas for deliberately infringing those patents. “We pride ourselves on our strong R&D and intellectual property and will move aggressively to protect that value on behalf of our customers, partners and shareholders,” the company said in a statement.

In an ongoing legal case, in 2009 TiVo sued Verizon Communications Inc. which uses set top boxes that Motorola supplies, to protect its DVR patents. Motorola is using this case as part of its complaint, saying that Verizon is asking that Motorola defend it and be responsible for any losses in the case, reports Bloomberg. Motorola is also seeking “all available remedies” for TiVo’s alleged infringements, as well as a declaration that Motorola set top boxes don’t violate TiVo’s patents, says Cnet.

TiVo has had its share of suits against other tech companies for patent infringement.  In 2004, it won a lawsuit against the Dish Network and is in the process of prohibiting the company from using DVR services. The case is still in appeals court. TiVo has also challenged AT&T’s U-verse technology by Microsoft, which turned around and accused TiVo of stealing its inventions, according to Bloomberg.

DVR patents have become commonplace in recent years, as the booming market has each company vehement in defending its technology and yearning for an even larger slice of the  pie.

Learn more about  DVRs and other digital media services on Amazon.

About This Author

Rosa is a professional journalist who holds a minor in Communications (print journalism), as well as a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in International Affairs. We are extremely pleased that she has joined out team.

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