The dispute between the software maker Microsoft and TiVo, the maker of digital video recorders and content distributors, intensified on late Tuesday when Microsoft filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against TiVo, in a San Francisco federal court.

As per the Microsoft complaint, the company’s Mediaroom technology is illegally used by TiVo for its display of programming information. The disputed Mediaroom technology, related to purchasing and delivering video, is currently licensed by Microsoft to AT&T, which is using the technology in its U-Verse TV service.

Microsoft’s filing of the lawsuit against TiVo is being largely perceived by the analysts as a move attempted to counter an August suit that TiVo filed against AT&T – Microsoft’s biggest customer of its Internet video platform. TiVo had alleged that AT&T’s video services illegally use TiVo’s TV “time-warping” technology used in its digital video recorders.

The Microsoft case against TiVo comes after a last-Friday request by the company, seeking the court’s permission to intervene in the TiVo-AT&T case on AT&T’s behalf.

While Microsoft’s director of public affairs, Kevin Kutz, has said that the company would be willing to resolve the situation through a licensing deal and has attempted negotiations with TiVo, a recent statement from TiVo specified that Microsoft’s lawsuit was a legal strategy to defend AT&T, and it will not affect TiVo’s case against the telecommunications provider.