TiVo's Lawyers Trash EchoStar's Lawyers

It's not nice to steal intellectual property. That's what the U.S. District Court of Appeals said last month, ending a legal fistfight between TiVo and EchoStar. The court upheld a lower court ruling that the owner of the Dish Network infringed patents for a "multimedia time warping system."

EchoStar will have to pay TiVo $89.6 million in damages (ka-ching) and possibly additional damages to cover the time since the original ruling (ka-ching). It may also have to either shut down the DVRs covered by the patent infringement or license the underlying technology from TiVo (ka-ching).

All cash that can only help TiVo, which has never turned a profit. Now you know why the TiVo logo is always smiling.

TiVo released a statement: "We are extremely pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit unanimously ruled in our favor in EchoStar's appeal of the district court judgment of patent infringement, full award of damages and that the injunction, which was stayed pending appeal, was ordered to be reinstated. Today's ruling is confirmation of the value of TiVo's IP portfolio, which is in addition to the other benefits TiVo has to offer. TiVo can now continue to focus on its goal to drive greater distribution in both its stand alone and mass distribution efforts."

EchoStar did not release a statement.

EchoStar DVRs have just won a CES 2008 Design and Engineering Award. Meanwhile, Comcast is rolling out TiVo-sanctioned DVRs to Boston-area cable subscribers. And TiVo is phasing out TiVo Series3 in favor of the newer and less expensive TiVo HD.

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