One of the patents being fought over is Tivo’s “Multimedia Time Warping System.” If you feel like doing the time warp again with your DVR, this patent lets you record one TV program while you’re watching another.
Here is a list and description of the four TiVo patents being litigated with Cisco:
- Patent No. 6,233,389 a/k/athe ‘389 patent lets “the user to store selected television broadcast programs while…simultaneously watching or reviewing another program.”
- A system for time shifting multimedia content streams (No. 7,529,465 a/k/a the ‘465 patent) that converts an MPEG formatted video stream for internal transfer and manipulation, and parses the separate video and audio components;
- An automatic playback overshoot correction system (Patent No. 7,493,015 a/k/a the ‘015 patent) that “predicts the position in the program material where the user expects to be” when they operate forward and reverse playback buttons; and
- A Method and apparatus implementing random access and time-based functions on a continuous stream of formatted digital data (Patent No. 6,792,195 a/k/a the ‘195 patent) designed to make “a continuous stream of formatted digital data” appear as though it is a particular “fixed length.”
Photo credit: D. Silliman
You can read TiVo’s patent infringement lawsuit against Cisco below, and when you’re done, view Cisco’s lawsuit filed last week.
Complaint for Patent Infringement and Jury Demand (TiVo, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc.)
Complaint for Declaratory Judgment (Cisco Systems, Inc. v. TiVo, Inc.)
Readers who feel like going through a different time warp can take a brief trip back to The Rocky Horror Picture Show here: