The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) yesterday terminated the reexamination of TiVo’s Multimedia Timewarping System patent, U.S. patent number 6,233,389 (the “Time Warp Patent”), with the decision to uphold the patent. TiVo issued this statement on the decision:
We are extremely pleased that the PTO has now found all claims of the Time Warp Patent to be valid after conducting a reexamination of the patent requested by EchoStar. This decision by the PTO is final and not appealable by EchoStar. Today’s decision by the PTO brings us another step closer to ending EchoStar’s continued infringement and we are hopeful that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will uphold the district court judgment of patent infringement and reinstate the injunction.
The affirmation of the patent is great news for TiVo. Not only does it settle any current uncertainty over the patent, but it makes it stronger going forward as it will be harder for any other party to have the patent re-examined in the future. This is likely to put more pressure on EchoStar to come to a settlement before the ruling on their appeal comes down. And it will also strengthen TiVo’s position should they pursue any other vendors for patent infringement.
