Court Orders DISH to Pay TiVo $200 Million in Patent Dispute

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 8, 2009 - 7:53am.

Alviso, Calif. - A federal court in Texas has ordered DISH Network (NASD: DISH) satellite TV provider EchoStar Communications to pay $200 million in sanctions, for violating an injunction won by TiVo (NASD: TIVO) in its DVR patent infringement claims against the company. TiVo had sought nearly $1 billion in the lawsuit, which it said represented all of DISH's profits over the past five years it has been distributing set-tops that infringe on its patent.

DISH was found in a 2006 ruling to have infringed TiVo's patent on digital video recording. While the company appealed that ruling, DISH engineers also tried to create a workaround for their digital video recorders that did not infringe TiVo's technology.

In June, a court ordered DISH to pay TiVo $103 million, saying the company violated the injunction against distributing set-tops that infringed TiVo's patent.

The most recent ruling found that DISH's infringement of TiVo's patent was not willful, and that the company attempted in good faith to create the patent workaround.

EchoStar plans to appeal the ruling.

"While we disagree that any amount of sanctions was warranted, the decision confirms our belief that we designed around TiVo's patent in good faith. We believe that we ultimately will prevail on appeal," DISH Network said in a statement.

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