Res Communis

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

From Satellite Today:

Supreme Court Rules Against Dish Network in TiVo Case Appeal
October 6, 2008

[Satellite Today 10-06-08] The U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn a $74 million judgment against Dish Network for violating a patent held by TiVo involving digital video recorders (DVR).

In 2004, TiVo filed suit against EchoStar Communications, now named Dish Network, for infringement on patented technology that allows viewers to record one program while watching another. TiVo won the decision and lower courts ordered Dish Network to shut down 3 million digital video recorders used by its customers because they use TiVo’s technology. Dish Network appealed the ruling.

“As expected, the Supreme Court denied our petition for certiorari today,” Dish Network and EchoStar Corp. said in an Oct. 6 statement. “The Supreme Court’s decision, however, 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. 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.”

Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, Dish will pay TiVo about $104 million — the amount the jury awarded in 2006 plus interest.

The Supreme Court’s Docket Page on the matter.