TiVo today accused Motorola and Time Warner Cable, a Motorola Customer, of violating patents covering the company's digital video recorder technology.

TiVo's accusation comes in the form of counterclaims filed in response to a lawsuit Motorola launched against TiVo a year ago in the Eastern District of Texas. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, TiVo said it has accused Motorola and Time Warner of infringing patents numbered 6,233,389; 7,529,465; and 6,792,195.

The patents cover TiVo's "multimedia time warping system," TiVo's "time shifting multimedia content streams," and its method and apparatus for allowing rewind, pause, and fast forward capabilities in streaming video.

Digital video recorders have been a popular technology for patent infringement lawsuits, and TiVo in particular has aggressively defended its patents. After a series of legal setbacks, Dish Network agreed to pay TiVo $500 million by way of a settlement. Motorola's suit against TiVo accused TiVo of violating Motorola DVR patents, and TiVo and Microsoft recently settled litigation related to the same type of technology.