DISH Network CEO Charlie Ergen On TiVo Lawsuit: “I’m Just Stubborn.”

Posted on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 by MegaZone

DISH Network just reported their most recent financial results, and Reuters’ MediaFile blog has several quotes from DISH CEO Charlie Ergen on a variety of topics. But the one I was most interested in, and likely of most interest to readers of this blog, was on the ongoing lawsuit with TiVo:

On on-going litigation between DISH and TiVo which might impact 4 to 6 million DISH subscribers if the satellite company loses:

What we did was we designed around the TiVo patent and patent law encourages people to be innovative and our guys were very innovative and used some very sophisticated algorithms and so fourth to design around the TiVo patent. I believe we’ll prevail but TiVo, we’re going to have conversations with TiVo one way or the other about how we work together, and again, I’m just stubborn. I know this case inside and out. I’ve sat through trials. I’ve sat through the engineering models. I’ve sat and had the best and the brightest explain this to us, and I’m just stubborn. We don’t violate their intellectual property today, and I want to prove that. And so we’re going to go to the September 4th hearing and see who is right and so far, TiVo has been right.

We’re a month away from the September 4th hearing, when we’ll see the next chapter in this ongoing saga play out.

Disclaimer: I’m employed by Sling Media, which is owned by EchoStar, which also has Charlie Ergen as CEO.

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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  • Glenn

    My patent experience is somewhat limited, but this guy should have learned by now that technical patent trials aren’t really that predictable. Even if they didn’t violate Tivo’s patents, the trial could go against them anyway. Easily. This stuff is just too complex for lay people, including judges, to understand.

  • Leo

    Looks like he is saying they don’t violate TiVo’s patents “now”. That seems to imply he is admitting they did at one time. So does this mean he is only fighting part of the original battle now, or something else entirely?

  • Glenn

    Actually, I take that back. I just read the court decision in the Cablevision RS-DVR lawsuit, and the courts decision that Cablevision’s system did NOT violate the defendant’s copyrights is VERY clear and comprehensive. It is clear they know exactly what is going on.

    I recommend reading it at http://www.publicknowledge.org/pdf/cablevision-decision-20080804.pdf. Might give you some faith in American justice.

    Anyway, I’ll still say most judges and most juries can’t understand this stuff, but there is some hope…