The thing with the patents is that this is the "typical" patent game with big companies.

Some of the TiVo patents apply to SB's gear, and could cause SB problems..
Some of the SB patents apply to TiVo's gear, and could cause Tivo problems..

So what one of the companies does (in this case, SB) is offer a licensing program. You can bet it'll be something like "Tivo pays SB $1.00, and allows SB free license to use patents XXXXXXX,YYYYYYY,ZZZZZZZ, while SB allows Tivo use of patents MMMMMMMM and NNNNNNNNN"

That's the patent licensing game. Played all the time.

D