Netflix vs BlockBuster - who will win?
 

Who's going to win this battle?

http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/04/news...reut/index.htm

PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - Online DVD rental company Netflix Inc. sued rival Blockbuster Inc. for patent infringement Tuesday, asking a federal judge in Northern California to shut down Blockbuster's 18-month-old online rental service and award Netflix damages, according to a copy of the filing.

Blockbuster (Research) declined to comment, saying it had not received a copy of the lawsuit.

Netflix (Research), which was founded in 1999, holds two U.S. patents for its business methodology, which calls for subscribers to pay a monthly fee to select and rent DVDs from the company's Web site and to maintain a list of titles telling Netflix in which order to ship the films, according to the patents, which were included as exhibits in the lawsuit.

The first patent, granted in 2003, covers the method by which Netflix customers select and receive a certain number of movies at a time, and return them for more titles.

The second patent, issued Tuesday, "covers a method for subscription-based online rental that allows subscribers to keep the DVDs they rent for as long as they wish without incurring any late fees, to obtain new DVDs without incurring additional charges and to prioritize and reprioritize their own personal dynamic queue -- of DVDs to be rented," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit says No. 1 U.S. rental chain Blockbuster, which launched its online rental service in 2004, was aware that Netflix had obtained a patent for its business method and was seeking a second, but willfully and deliberately violated the existing patent.

i don't use either. so ......

actually.. i have the monthly in store deal from blockbuster

I dont think a pantent for any online subscription can stop a new competitor.

they are both going to lose to PPV Cable. Dont leave your house and dont have to return anything. When they get bigger say goodbye to all rental services.

I hope blockbuster gets their ass handed to them...bunch of fucking cocksuckers.

I hope netflix gets pounded, I hate stupid patents.

Netflix are just as bad

WTF does the patent office allow people to patent a business type? I had the idea long before Netflix. I even have a witnesses. Maybe I should sue Netflix for invading my head and stealing my idea.

Couldn't get out of your late fees? :1orglaugh

I think Blockbuster will be allowed to continue their service.. I doubt a patent on a business model can hold up in court.

although BBuster has been lowering their prices to compete!

I didn't know there was a patent war with them

whoever has more money and better lawyers will win :)

The patent should be bullshit and I hate patents cause in the end they hurt consumers more then anything.

I love netflix though. Blockbuster has pissed me off too many times in the past.

You are not Netflix. Nor are you Acacia.

No shit and?

Bad and or stupid patents only hurt the consumers.

I'm speaking from a stakeholders pov. Fuck the consumers.

On a related note, anyone seen acacia's stock lately? Way the fuck up.

They accept the filing fee rather indiscriminately. Have only seen them reject based on presentation of visual mark, any legal terms regarding methodology or technology are way beyond those clerks intellects. :2 cents:

I dont think they'll win this; but Blockbuster is a HORRIBLE company. They have been for 4 years now...always behind the 8 ball.

They didnt see video on demand coming, they didnt see netflix coming...The next big thing will be videos downloaded off the internet; especially when media centers get big...And guess what, blockbuster has no plans in that arena either ...

i mean, come on....do their executives just blow eachother all day???

I use the Blockbuster mail service so I hope they win, with BB you get 4 free instores a month as well as the mail out dvd's,good deal!

I am sure Blockbuster wins that, but I dont think they win the battle for mail order dvd rentals. Netflix is a great service.

I have to say, I'm a huge Netflix fan, but I've always despised BB, so I'm rooting for Netflix on this one.

Let's go with netflix

This one has about as much merit as Amazon's "one click buy" patent -- unfortunately, the patent office has never really been equipped to properly assess software and/or processes...now, if Netflix had a special quantum delivery device that BB stole, sure. But they didn't. They saw that someone else would eventually rent movies online so they tried to get a bs patent.

It won't hold up in court, and is already looking very bad for Netflix according to Wallstreet.

I say Blockbuster win.
I also say within the next year or so Blockbuster acquires NetFlix