[mythtv-users] Patents again

Joseph A. Caputo jcaputo1 at comcast.net
Tue Apr 12 18:49:20 UTC 2005


On Saturday 09 April 2005 13:12, Colin Smillie wrote:
> On Apr 8, 2005 3:13 PM, Robert Johnston <anaerin at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Patent No. 6,674,960 (The one in question, which relates to 
recording
> > to a hard-drive) was filed in 2002, that's 10 years after Hauppauge
> > make a system for doing so. Therefore Patent No. 6,674,960 is moot
> > under the terms of "Prior Art", if I recall correctly.
> 
> Not quite a mute point, the patent would still need to be over turned.
>  Last I heard the average cost to over turn a patent was somewhere
> around $2M in legal fees, in most cases not replayable. It alot of
> smaller companies will be forced to pay a settlement rather than
> fighting.

...but there are some big players now in the DVR market.  It might be 
worth it for a big player like Comcast to get the patent overturned.

-JAC


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