Microsoft on Tuesday filed suit against TiVo in a San Francisco federal court, accusing the company of using the software titan's intellectual property without permission. Microsoft said that it remained open to resolving this situation through an intellectual property licensing agreement by engaging TiVo in negotiations.

"Microsoft's recent legal actions, including its decision to seek to intervene on behalf of its customer, AT&T, and its recent complaint against TiVo in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California do not bear on whether the AT&T products and services that are the subject of TiVo's complaint infringe the patents asserted by TiVo. Rather these actions are part of a legal strategy to defend AT&T. We remain confident in our position that AT&T will be found to infringe on the TiVo patents asserted," Tivo said in a statement release don its web site.



TiVo, won a series of court victories over Dish Network for violating a patent on a technology that lets viewers pause and rewind live TV. Last August TiVo took the same fight to AT&T and Verizon, alleging that television services offered by those companies also violate this and two other TiVo patents.

Microsoft could be on the hook as well if AT&T loses its case. Microsoft's Mediaroom software is used in AT&T's set-top boxes that deliver TV under the brand U-verse.