Tivo, which is a company that has over 146 patents on various DVR specialties, has been reaping in huge sums of money from lawsuits dealing with these patents. The most recent case was against Dish Network and won them over $200 million according to Business Week. Tivo has been winning many cases because of its trademark patents such as the "time warp" patent that allows the box to play one show while recording another. This patent has been a hot topic for Tivo to sue over because it is essential that most DVR's have this feature for them to work properly. Earlier Tivo won another huge lawsuit against EchoStar in 2006. The lawsuit was over whether EchoStar abused the patent that Tivo has allowing users rewind or fast forward capabilities during a love video. The court ruled in favor of Tivo and they received $87 million in damages according to Fox News. Tivo has made hug sums of money so far from these lawsuits and I doubt they will stop here.
I believe that Tivo shouldn't be abusing their patents to sue other companies. Tivo has been losing money and recently Tivo reported a $2.9 million loss for the second quarter on $57.4 million in revenues. Tivo has been losing profits from not inventing any new technology and from fierce competition from other local cable companies and other big companies such as Dish Network. Their once inventive ideas are now being used in different ways and Tivo is struggling to keep their profits. Their major source of income is from their patent lawsuits, which they are abusing in my opinion. Their patents are for very vague features that are required for other companies to make DVR like devices. Tivo is just trying to make it so other companies can't make devices like this to eliminate the competition they have, which is greatly losing them money. The lawsuits are also making the company's stock prices soar, which can be seen here. I believe this gives stock buyer a misrepresentation of how Tivo is generating income because if they didn't win these lawsuits they would be performing very poorly as a corporation. Tivo is dieing out due to the competition and their lack of new ideas and the only thing holding them alive is their patent lawsuits.
1 comment:
I agree completely. I think Tivo is abusing the right to sue over their patents. They just don't want to go out of busniess, and they are low blowing any company that they see as a threat to them. They have been losing tons of money to other DVR companies, and winning lawsuits is the only thing keeping them around. I think Tivo will soon see that they need new technology to stay in business, and the lawsuits wont always go their way.
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