[ Thanks to Wol for this
link. ]
TiVO’s been awarded a patent for its “multimedia time-warping,”
and it’s already out on the streets picking fights with stray
giants from Redmond. TiVO’s patents cover 61 claims, enough that
the company’s CTO is already talking about letting Microsoft off
the hook with a licensing arrangement. The Standard, by the way,
is
reporting that TiVO’s shares jumped 70% on news that it had
been awarded the patents.
“But so extensive is the filing granted to TiVO, it’s
difficult to imagine anyone making a digital VCR which doesn’t
infringe the patent in some way. It’s rather like filing a claim
for a “motor vehicle” with “wheels”, “transmission” and an
“engine”. Pretty tough to work around, if you want to make a
car.”