Dish Network‘s prolonged fight to own the term “TV Everywhere” ultimately went nowhere.
The satcaster has quietly walked away from its battle with Time Warner Inc., DirecTV, Comcast and other cable operators in trying to secure trademark protection on the term. Dish last week notified the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office that it was withdrawing the 4-year-old application for “TV Everywhere,” which the industry has used as a generic buzzword to refer to authenticated pay-TV services.
A Dish rep declined to comment. The company’s filing did not provide an explanation for the withdrawal.
Dish filed the trademark application for “TV Everywhere” on Sept. 17, 2009. The USPTO, after procedural delays, published the satcaster’s application for opposition in the fall of 2011, and it was immediately challenged by companies including Time Warner, DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Cablevision Systems.
Each of the companies objecting to Dish’s grab for “TV Everywhere” argued that the term had been used generically to describe authenticated online video services — in some cases prior to Dish’s trademark application. Indeed, Time Warner claimed its own execs had coined the term; honcho Jeff Bewkes had used “TV Everywhere” to describe the conglom’s strategy in early 2009, ahead of signing its initial authentication pact with Comcast.
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In tandem with Dish scrapping its claim on “TV Everywhere,” DirecTV and the five cable operators have dropped their opposition to “Dish Anywhere,” which they had formally challenged last September.
On its website, Dish now uses “Dish Anywhere” to refer to its Internet-delivered TV services and apps, which include DishAnywhere.com and its Slingbox-enabled set-tops.
