US 6,002,394 · Granted 1999-12-14

The Patent That Turned TV Guides Into Interactive Clickable Menus

Before Netflix and smart TVs, figuring out what to watch meant flipping through a printed TV guide. This patent describes a system that puts your TV schedule on a computer screen (or your TV itself) and lets you click on shows to find more info, connect with advertisers, or jump to a website — basically the ancestor of today's streaming menus.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a system for displaying television schedule information on multiple types of screens—TVs, computers, or hybrid devices—where viewers can search, select, and interact with that information by linking it to remote databases and websites. What's protected is the specific combination of storing schedule data locally or remotely, displaying it across different interfaces, and allowing viewers to click through to related content like advertiser sites or more show details.

Why it matters

Filed in 1997 and granted in 1999, this patent captured an emerging idea: TV schedules don't have to be static paper products or crawling text on screen. By connecting TV guide data to the internet and making it interactive, it anticipated how modern streaming services and smart TV interfaces would work. Starsight Telecast was building the bridge between traditional broadcast television and the digital, searchable world of on-demand content.

Real-world use

When you click on a show in your cable box's guide to read a synopsis or set a recording, or when Netflix's menu lets you browse upcoming releases, you're using an evolution of the idea this patent locked down.

Original USPTO abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for providing television schedule information to a viewer, and for allowing the viewer to link, search, select and interact with information in a remote database, e.g., a database on the internet. The television schedule information can be displayed on a variety of viewer interfaces, such as televisions screens, computer monitors, PCTV screens and the like. The television schedule information may be stored on the viewer's computer, television, PCTV, or a remote server (e.g., a website), or the television schedule information may be downloaded from a remote database to the viewer's computer, television or PCTV.

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,002,394
Filing date: 1997-04-11
Grant date: 1999-12-14
Assignee: Starsight Telecast, Inc.
Inventor(s): SCHEIN; STEVEN M., O'BRIEN; SEAN A., LEFTWICH; JAMES JAY, BROUGHTON; SUSAN
CPC class: H04N21/4435

View original record on Google Patents →

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