Bad news for all you couch potatoes out there. If you have Dish Network, you may no longer be able to use your digital video recorder to rewind programs while you watch them. All those Larry the Cable Guy jokes that went over your head the first time. Gone forever. 
In addition to causing a 50% jump in TiVo’s stock price, the ruling awarded TiVo $192M in damages. The Eastern District of Texas court ruled Dish Network (formerly Echostar) was in violation of an earlier injunction. The injunction forbid Dish Network from marketing technology which allowed for recording and watching a program at the same time to allow rewinding, fast forwarding and pausing.
Echostar already paid TiVo $106M from a 2006 patent infringement lawsuit and was required to disable three million infringing digital recorders. In January of 2008, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the lower court’s 2006 ruling, finding willful patent infringement and awarding full damages and a permanent injunction. Dish Network appealed and The United Supreme Court denied certiorari in October of 2008. Dish Network plans to appeal this most recent ruling.
UPDATE: Dish Network wins last minute stay against TiVo.
Recent Comments