SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
President Donald Trump has selected Andrei Iancu, the managing partner of a major Los Angeles law firm, to be the next head of the US Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO].
His most notable work in the tech sector is likely his representation of TiVo Corp. in its long-running patent battles with companies like EchoStar, Motorola, Microsoft, Verizon, and Cisco. TiVo ultimately succeeded in compelling those defendants to pay up for its pioneering DVR patents, and payments to TiVo ultimately totaled more than $1.6 billion, according to Iancu's biography page.
Iancu also had a hand in Immersion Corp's $82 million jury verdict against Sony Computer Entertainment in which a jury found that Immersion's patent claims on tactile feedback technology were valid and infringed.
[...] Iancu earned his JD, along with an MS in mechanical engineering and a BS in aerospace engineering, from UCLA. He worked as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft before attending law school.
Handling the business of a large and successful law firm like Irell & Manella means that Iancu is no slouch when it comes to management skills. And his varied set of clients could help him avoid the tug of war that often pops up between tech and pharma over how to manage the patent system.
If confirmed by the Senate, Iancu will replace Michelle Lee, the outgoing USPTO director who left shortly after Trump's inauguration. Lee, a former Google attorney, was a favorite of the tech sector.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:17AM (2 children)
Isn't Cablecard that thing that in theory all cablecos support, and which lets you use 3rd-party equipment with your cable subscription, but in reality it doesn't actually work because that would conflict with the cableco's interest in having you rent equipment from them instead?
As for TiVo, it's dead. According to their Wikipedia page, they were acquired by Rovi (formerly Macrovision), and they plan to stop all hardware production and focus on licensing. As I said before, if you want a DVR, you have to rent it from the cableco. TiVo just licenses patents to the companies that make the cableco's devices.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiVo_Inc. [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:36AM
Cablecards do actually work. Maybe not everywhere, but they definitely work in my area.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:42AM
Also, go look at the source material for the claim in the Wikipedia article that TiVo plans to discontinue selling hardware: it doesn't say that. One can infer that it's a likely outcome, but there is no publicly disclosed plan for this.
Still, if my TiVo quits working and cannot be replaced, that's going to push me over the edge to cutting the cable-tv cord.