[1969pontiac]

@media print { body:before {content: url(http://cleanprint.net/pt/t?&d=2140&p=0&s=NF,NF); } } Judge orders Dish Network to stop using TiVo technology

By William McQuillen and Susan Decker

Bloomberg News

Posted: 06/02/2009 08:28:04 PM PDT



Dish Network was ordered by a federal judge to stop using a digital video recording service that infringes a TiVo patent.

Dish and EchoStar were also told to pay $192.7 million to TiVo in damages and interest as their software still infringes TiVo's patent even after Dish had claimed it made changes to the product, U.S. Judge David Folsom said in an order Tuesday.

The new products were the same as the previous, leaving Dish and EchoStar in contempt of an earlier ban, Folsom wrote.

"The harm caused to TiVo by EchoStar's contempt is substantial," wrote Folsom, who oversaw the hearing in Texarkana, Texas, in February. "EchoStar has gained millions of customers since this court's injunction was issued, customers that are now potentially unreachable by TiVo."

The judge refused to further delay his order, saying "EchoStar has escaped this court's injunction for over two years and further delay will be manifestly unjust to TiVo." He said he would consider later how much Dish and EchoStar should pay for contempt of his order.

San Jose-based TiVo, the pioneer of digital video recorders, had won a trial and appeals court ruling that the Dish service violates its patent for technology that lets users record a TV program and play it back at the same time to allow, for example, instant replay or pausing.

"We are extremely gratified by the court's well reasoned and thorough decision, in which it rejected EchoStar's attempted workaround claim regarding the TiVo patent, found EchoStar to be in contempt of court and ordered the permanent injunction fully enforced," TiVo said in a statement.


Dish and EchoStar have said they began developing "a novel DVR" after a Texas jury ruled in 2006 that older versions of their software violated the TiVo patent.
Englewood, Colo.-based Dish, the nation's second-largest satellite-television provider behind D****** Group, and EchoStar said changes were made that work around TiVo's so-called "time warp" patent.
Dish and EchoStar said they would appeal the ruling and seek a stay with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.