Cisco hits TiVo with patent suit over DVRs

It's another day, and a new patent infringement suit sprouts up in the technology world.

Now that Oracle v. Google has wrapped up all save for an appeal, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California will be kept busy not just by Apple v. Samsung and Yahoo v. Facebook, but now also Cisco Systems v. TiVo.

(Credit: TiVo)

Cisco has slapped the living-room entertainment company with a lawsuit over patent infringement regarding digital video recorder box technology.

Similar to another case that recently went on at the federal courthouse in San Francisco, this lawsuit, filed in San Jose, also concerns licensing but comes with another twist.

According to Reuters, Cisco wants the court to grant an order that would void specified TiVo patents or declare that Cisco and its DVRs are not infringing them.

Cisco sells DVR technology through its subsidiary Scientific Atlanta, which was acquired in 2006. From there, Scientific Atlanta sells Cisco's DVR boxes to cable television providers nationwide, including Time Warner and DirecTV.

Thus, whatever comes about from this lawsuit could have significant ramifications throughout the industry given how widespread the technology is.

Reuters also quoted Brean Murray analyst Todd Mitchell as describing this lawsuit as "a David vs. Goliath situation," with Cisco taking the place of Goliath. But if you remember how that story goes, then TiVo should have a chance here.

TiVo is already in another legal battle with Motorola and Time Warner Cable over patented technology on DVR boxes. TiVo recently responded in that situation with a countersuit in March.

This story originally appeared at ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "Cisco slaps TiVo with patent suit over DVRs."