André Weidemann wrote:

Harald Milz wrote:

...

Huh - http://wiki.ffii.org/SwpatVcrEn

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).

IANAL but afair only the US patent system has something like prior art. The EU patent system has a first come first serve way of giving away patents which means that they could try to sue whoever they want.

See http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/mdd/v04/i01/html/patents.html

Quote (talking about the US):

Perhaps most important, we are a country with a “first-to-invent” system. Our system awards the patent to the person(s) who invented the invention first, not to the one who filed the patent application first. However, almost all other countries follow a “first-to-file” system, in which the inventors who file the application first are awarded the patent.

kind regards Philip