Two rivals in the market for digital video recorders (DVRs),
SONICblue and TiVo, have announced an agreement to drop patent
infringement lawsuits that they filed against each other last year.
Both suits, pending in the US District Court for the Northern
District of California, involved patents associated with DVR
technology.
SONICblue filed first in December 2001, claiming that its rival
was infringing on a newly-awarded patent covering technologies for
pausing and playing back television programmes. TiVo retaliated in
January 2001, accusing SONICblue of infringing on a multimedia
"time warping" system.
The two companies said in a joint statement issued on Friday:
"We believe our energies are better spent expanding the market for
DVRs rather than fighting with each other."
Under the agreement, each side will dismiss its claims against
the other without prejudice.
SONICblue is still facing lawsuits filed by major entertainment
companies including AOL Time Warner, MGM and Disney and also three
TV networks.
The companies claim that features offered by SONICblue's DVRs,
which allow users to remove commercials and to send copies of
recorded programmes to other DVRs over the internet, infringe
copyrights.
