DVR Chatter

As a Verizon FiOS customer I have both Music Choice and Urge. I enjoy them both.  Urge has a Comedy Channel that I find myself listening to frequently.  The sound quality is a little better on Music Choice, while the stations on Urge are a little better.

Music Choice is suing Urge over a couple patents, looking for some money and for Urge to stop using the patents in question. These patent things happen all the time, and it's mostly companies registering patents after they find out someone is launching a service similar to the one they offer so that they can sue the new comer into oblivion. These patents are from 2007.  The Urge music channels were launched in Spring 2007. 

Music Choice has been around since 1990.  It's "jointly owned by Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, Microsoft, Motorola, Sony Corporation of America and EMI Music" according to the article.

Music Choice accuses MTV’s Urge Radio of infringing on U.S. Patent No. 7,275,256 (“System and Method for Providing an Interactive, Visual Complement to an Audio Program), issued on Sept. 25, 2007; and 7,158,169 (“Method and System for Displaying Content While Reducing Burn-In of a Display”), issued Jan. 2, 2007.

Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV and AT&T U-verse TV are among the customers for Urge Radio, which includes an array of themed music channels.

MTVN spokeswoman Jeannie Kedas declined to comment on the suit.