January 31, 2005

IP/TV vs IPTV

It was only a small surprise to see the announcement of an agreement between Verizon and Microsoft to do TV over the net.

But it was a rather larger surprise to see them call it "IPTV".

IP/TV is an active, registered US trademark - but not a mark owned by Microsoft of Verizon.  Instead the mark is owned by Cisco and covers a product line to move TV over the internet.

I know this because I wrote much of the real-time core of that product back in the 1995-1998 timeframe.

I kind'a would'a thought that Microsoft or Verizon would have discovered the existence of the "IP/TV" mark.

Posted by karl at January 31, 2005 11:49 PM