>> Does that mean Intel now owns all digital video recording and storing >> techniques, as well as EPG??? What does that tell us about the clues of >> the European Patent Office? > Nothing so far. Intel probaly was the first one to file this kind of > patent. Take a look at the date when it was filed (2001-01-18). > This is still about one year after the initial revision of VDR... > So there is the "right of prior use". If VDR has been doing what ever > the patent claims to protect, then it will be difficult for Intel to > enforce the patent against VDR.(...I think). "Prior use" is for closed systems where no public information is not available. But if VDR was public with concepts and source before 2001-01-18 then Intel could not patent the things what were already published by VDR community. In other words, the patent office did a bad job when making search of things prohibiting the patent (normally just browsing other patents of the same area, not VDR/DVB-mailing list snoop). And above applies to tivo/replay-tv/m$ and other companies. You cannot patent already publicly known stuff. And this is why announcing and requesting features on the mailing list is important.. :-) Best regards, Jori
