Federal Court Denies DISH Appeal in TiVo Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C., April
14: A U.S. federal appeals court has rejected DISH Network’s petition to have a
panel of judges re-hear evidence in relation to its copyright dispute with DVR
pioneer TiVo.

Earlier this year, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the $74 million in damages
awarded to TiVo in a 2006 ruling as part of its patent dispute with the
satellite platform. The appeals court ruled that DISH infringed on TiVo’s
software patents for its own DVR services. With interest, the damages sum payable
to TiVo amounts to $94 million.

DISH responded to the
ruling Friday, noting: “We are disappointed that the Federal Circuit did not
grant our petition for rehearing. 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. This improved
software is fully operational, has been automatically downloaded to current
customers and does not infringe the TiVo patent at issue in the Federal
Circuit's ruling.”

DISH has said it is taking
its appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

TiVo said the ruling
“brings us closer to resolution of EchoStar's infringement and reconfirms the
strength of TiVo's Time Warp patent, which is in addition to the other benefits
TiVo has to offer. We look forward to full enforcement of our rights in the
near term."

—By Mansha Daswani