As the make-or-break patent trial between Tivo Inc. and EchoStar Corp. got under way in Marshall, Texas, Tivo’s top brass had an idea: Let’s buy a cow.
It was late March in 2006, and that meant it was time for Farm City Week in the home of America’s most popular venue for patent litigation. Featuring the Harrison County Cattlemen’s Ball and the 4-H Cake Show, the main event at Farm City Week is the livestock auction, where prize-winning steers, heifers, lambs, goats, broiler chickens and rabbits are sold by dedicated young farmers.
