The U.S. Supreme Court began its fall session Oct. 6, and one case it’s not going to hear is Dish Network’s appeal of a judgment that it infringed on TiVo patents.
Having reached the legal end of one road, Dish said it would release approximately $104 million to TiVo from an escrow account. That’s the amount named by a 2006 jury, plus interest.
But Dish said it will continue to use disputed technology in DVRs, setting the stage for another court fight.
In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit backed a District Court finding that DVRs distributed by Dish violated TiVo software patents. That court ordered Dish to shut down 3 million offending DVRs, but that order was suspended pending the appeals.
“The Supreme Court's decision ... does not impact our software design-around, which has been placed in Dish DVRs subject to the district court's injunction, and our customers can continue using their Dish DVRs,” Dish said in a statement. “We believe that the design-around does not infringe Tivo's patent and that Tivo's pending motion for contempt should be denied. We look forward to that ruling in the near future.”
TiVo thinks Dish is still infringing and still liable for more damages.
“[We] remain confident that the District Court will enforce the injunction and award further damages from EchoStar's continued infringement of our Time Warp patent," TiVo said in a statement.
TiVo brought the original infringement suit in 2004.
