TiVo patent win against EchoStar upheld
Updated at 11:45 a.m. PDT with Dish Network's statement.
Another court has upheld TiVo's patent suit against EchoStar Communications.
A U.S. Appeals Court on Friday denied EchoStar's appeal on an earlier court ruling that said the company's Dish Network digital video recorders violated a patent held by TiVo. The ruling was first reported by Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection blog.
Friday's appellate court decision comes two years after TiVo's initial victory, in which a court found that EchoStar's DVRs (digital video recorders) "willfully infringed" on TiVo's patented TimeWarp technology. EchoStar appealed the ruling, which awarded $73.9 million in damages to TiVo. It was also upheld by an appeals court in January.
Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo first sued EchoStar in 2004 for selling its Dish Network DVR, which, like TiVo's DVR, allows TV watchers to record one channel and watch another simultaneously.
"We are extremely pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today denied EchoStar's petition for a rehearing en banc, upholding the court's unanimous ruling in our favor on January 31, 2008, in EchoStar's appeal of the district court judgment of patent infringement, full award of damages and an order for the injunction to be reinstated," TiVo said in a statement.
EchoStar said it was "disappointed" by the court's decision not to rehear its appeal. "The decision, however, will have no effect on our current or future customers because EchoStar's engineers have developed and deployed 'next-generation' DVR software to our customers' DVRs," the company said in a statement. EchoStar said the updated software has been delivered to its customers and that none of the DVRs currently infringe on TiVo's patent, and promised that customers will see no interruption in service as a result of the ruling.
EchoStar, which has since changed its name to Dish Network, said it plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
that this resolution neither surprises me nor changes my
positive feelings about the company and their products. Look at
the reviews, both professional and user, and you'll see I'm not
alone in saying, Dish knows how to build a quality DVR. The
622/722 series beats anything out there in the HD DVR sphere,
and that's as cutting edge as it gets. So, I say enjoy this victory
Tivo--it's your victory as others become more relevant in
actually moving time-shifting into the future.
I say this knowing full well that Tivo was a key innovator in the
space and continues to maintain loyal fans of its user
experience. But let's face it, they have long since become less a
manufacturer of 'stuff' in the here-and-now and more a
litigating machine making profits from past successes. Sortof
sad.
And with Echostar's purchase a while back of Sling Media, they
show they 'get it'. Beyond time-shifting, the future is also about
place-shifting.
Chin up Charlie (and gang), and keep the good stuff coming!
Oh, and about those national HD channels we've been waiting
for...;)
- Sorry Charlie...
- by honorable1 April 11, 2008 3:21 PM PDT
- Completely bogus decision. This 'technology' is easily implemented independently with a TV/Video card and a PC. You can record a cable channel simultaneous to watching another channel. The only thing unique here is the 'removal' of advertising, which is nothing more than capturing the identifing code for the ad in the Tv signal. The US patent system is going to H311 and companies like tivo, and an inept USPTO, are driving it to ruin. Call your congress(person)man and tell them to vote against "patent reform".
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