For those interested, this went public Friday -
The Rovi acquisition of Tivo is disturbing, as Rovi appears to be a patent troll… I hope that Nuvyyo doesn’t find themselves in their cross hairs, as it could prove to be an unwelcome distraction for them. During my career in new product development, I’ve crossed paths with patent trolls a number of times, almost always for incorporating existing technology such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, ADSL, etc. among others into my products, and it was never fun to get that letter, inviting me to pay a royalty fee at “reasonable” cost now, or go to trial and pay significantly more later. It’s almost impossible to develop any new product that incorporates existing technology to some extent, without getting that letter from a patent troll.
For those unaware, patent trolls typically don’t produce anything. They buy up patents, usually from companies that have gone out of business, for the sole purpose of generating revenue from enforcing those patents by intimidation and threats of lawsuits. They can have a stifling effect on innovation.
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That is troubling. I wonder if that has anything to do with Channel Master not offering a whole home dvr solution yet?
There are a few threads on this already … but for those that forget … Rovi used to have another corporate name MACROVISION … the same wonderful people who created VHS tape copy protection schemes.
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Yeah, my fault for not looking first I guess.