PATENT OFFICE REJECTS TWO KEY TIVO CLAIMS

In a surprise ruling on Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) rejected TiVo’s claims to two patents that form much of the basis of TiVo’s lawsuit against DISH/Echostar. TiVo had claimed that the software in DISH’s digital video recorders (DVRs) had infringed on those patents, and its claim had been upheld by lower courts, which had ordered DISH to disable consumers’ DVRs and had fined it more than $300 million. A review by a federal appeals court is now pending. In a statement, TiVo said that while it was disappointed with the PTO’s decision, “this is just one of several steps in the review process. … We will continue to work with the PTO to explain the validity of the claims under review.”