U.S. Court of Appeals Denies EchoStar’s Petition, TiVo And EchoStar Comment

Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 by MegaZone

The U.S. Court of Appeals has denied EchoStar’s Petition for a rehearing en banc in their patent dispute with TiVo. In response, TiVo released the following statement:

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television products and services for digital video recorders (DVR), offered the following statement today on the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. to deny EchoStar of its request for a rehearing en banc:

“We are extremely pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today denied EchoStar’s petition for a rehearing en banc, upholding the Court’s unanimous ruling in our favor on January 31, 2008, in EchoStar’s appeal of the district court judgment of patent infringement, full award of damages and an order for the injunction to be reinstated.

Today’s 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.”

EDIT: And DISH Network has also released a statement:

DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq:DISH) issued the following statement regarding recent developments in the Tivo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp. lawsuit:

“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.

“All DISH Network customers can continue to use their DVRs without any interruption or changes to the award-winning DVR features and services provided by DISH Network.

“We intend to appeal the Federal Circuit’s ruling to the United States Supreme Court.”

So now it goes to the Supreme Court, who can decline to hear the case – thus ending the appeal options, or they can accept the case which would extend it until they have the time for the hearing.

Disclaimer: I’m currently employed by Sling Media, which is owned by EchoStar.

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • http://www.blu-raystats.com/ Dave C

    Once the Supreme Court settles is in favour of TiVo (or refuses to hear the case), who will they turn to next? The President? The Queen? God?

    This is getting kinda ridiculous.

  • Ruben

    So if Dish Network loses at the Supreme Court level, do they have to pay Tivo before they can continue to use the Dish DVR’s? Do you guys think that Dish will do what Directv once did, and partner with Tivo for their DVR software? That would seriously get me looking into switching to Dish as my provider.

  • 20TIL6

    “Disclaimer: I’m currently employed by Sling Media, which is owned by EchoStar.”

    I never knew that. Did this have any bearing on the recent name change for the site?

  • http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

    20TIL6: Nope, the employment thing is a recent change and happened after the name change. Unless changing the name made hiring me more palatable or something, but I don’t think that’s the case.

  • 20TIL6

    OK, sorry I missed that bit of news. Wish you the best.