TiVo Wins Patent Suit
TiVo hasn’t always been profitable, but today the company stands to make a small fortune after winning its patent suit against the Dish Network Corp over technology used in its remote controls. The decision would net TiVo about $300 million from Dish (about $100 million in damages and interest, and the rest in contempt sanctions).
From the New York Times:
“At issue is a TiVo patent on technology for storing and retrieving video on DVRs, which lets viewers pause, rewind and replay live TV. TiVo sued Dish in 2004 for patent infringement for using a similar technology on its DVRs, a case Dish lost on appeal. Dish paid TiVo $104.6 million in damages and interest and was barred from using the technology.
While the case was going on, Dish crafted a redesigned technology that it said did not infringe on TiVo’s patent. But the U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas, disagreed and ordered Dish to pay TiVo additional damages — this time at $103 million plus interest, along with about $200 million in contempt sanctions.”
In this appeal, two of the appellate judges found that the lower court “applied the right standard in analyzing whether Dish’s redesigned technology still infringed on TiVo’s patent.” Judge Randall Rader, the lone dissenter, said the court is “punishing a company that has made a good faith effort at a redesign.”
This is the latest of several similar lawsuits; last year, TiVo sued AT&T and Verizon “over the same patent and two others that allow multiroom viewing and correct overshooting when viewers fast-forward TV.” Turning the tables, Microsoft sued TiVo in January, alleging that TiVo has violated Microsoft patents related to such things as an on-screen TV guide.
Stay tuned for further updates.
