TiVo and EchoStar, of Dish Network fame, have been embroiled in patent litigation for a number of years, regarding a number of patents that TiVo uses to implement some of its DVR features (AFAIK, these are not trivial patents but IANAL so don’t quote me on that). TiVo got some good news today, as the Supreme Court refused to hear EchoStar’s appeal and letting the preevious judegement stand. The stock, unlike most of the rest of the market, was up 1.8 percent, a meager 11 cents, on the news, while EchoStar stock droped 74 cents, a 3.9 percent drop.
Out of options, DISH finally pays TiVo $104 million judgment
As expected, the decision sparked a number of appeals from DISH, but TiVo won every appeal, with court after court deciding in favor of TiVo, and the US Patent and Trademark Office ruling that the patent was valid and enforceable. Throughout the process, DISH remained adamant that its DVR software didn’t infringe on any TiVo IP, and even attempted to sue TiVo after it came up with a workaround so that it could be declared valid and noninfringing.
I’d blogged about the lawsuit two years ago, and more recently about my switch from Dish to Verizon FiOS + TiVo HD,