Lycos Patent Lawsuit Threatens Use of Suggestive Search
By David Kaplan - Mon 15 Jan 2007 02:51 PM PST
Another patent saga begins ... Lycos is suing TiVo, Netflix and Blockbuster over the way those companies provide recommendations to customers for movies or television shows, Bloomberg reports. Lycos owns two patents it says covers “information filtering technology” and claims the three companies are using that technology without permission. Lycos filed suit Jan. 3 in federal court in Alexandria, Va., seeking royalties and a court order to stop the companies from their alleged infringement of the patents.
Blogger Davis Freeberg (via Yahoo News) identifies the patents in question as 6775664 (for a search method that uses a user feedback system) and 6308175 (covers technology whose “filter system compares information received to an individual user’s query profile data) as the most likely candidates. Lycos is seeking royalties and a court order that would stop the three companies from infringing the patents. If Lycos wins, it could have a chilling effect on the tech industry and the use of suggestive search, Freeberg contends: “In the case of TiVo, it’s a unique feature that other DVR providers can’t offer, but in the case of Blockbuster and Netflix, their use of suggestions can save them millions of dollars by recommending movies that utilize low cost archive content over the top new releases.”
Posted in: Legal, Patents, Technologies/Formats, Search






