EchoStar communications has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against digital video recorder company TiVo and electronics maker Humax. The suit, filed on April 29 in U.S. district court in Texas, alleges that TiVo and Humax infringe on four EchoStar patents related to DVR technology.

Well, I’m completely not shocked by this. Standard practice when defending against a patent lawsuit – you dig through your own patents and try to find some you can accuse the other party of violating. TiVo and ReplayTV did this years ago – they ended up settling with a mutual licensing agreement.

TiVo’s latest news letter…
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TiVo Desktop 2.1 is an easy to use application that lets you publish and share digital music, photos, and TiVo recordings between your networked TiVo Series2™ DVR and your computer. Digital Music & Photos and the TiVoToGo™ feature are included with your regular paid subscription to the TiVo Service. TiVo Desktop 2.1 now includes support for playing TiVoToGo shows on Microsoft Portable Media Centers. To get the TiVoToGo feature, you will need the latest version of the TiVo Service installed on your DVR. TiVo Desktop 2.1 is only available for Windows® XP and 2000, for other systems, see our earlier versions.

Humax announced on Tuesday a $399 DVD recorder with TiVo’s service built in. The Humax DRT400 DVD Recorder, now available in select retail stores, comes with a DVR that can store up to 40 hours of shows and can burn content to DVD-R and DVD-RW discs.

Well, sounds like Humax has jumped on the TiVo Basic bandwagon. And they’ve brought the cost of a DVD burning TiVo down.