Court gives thumbs up to TiVo: Dish Network to pay another $200 million compensation

September 8, 2009 |

Court gives thumbs up to TiVo: Dish Network to pay another $200 million compensation

By John Lister

Court gives thumbs up to TiVo: Dish Network to pay another $200 million compensation Dish Network has been ordered to pay $200 million compensation to TiVo as the firms’ patent dispute saga rolls on. It’s short of the billion-dollar payout TiVo asked for but takes the payments to date past the $400 million mark.

The feud began back in 2004 when TiVo sued Dish Network’s parent company EchoStar for breaching a patent on its technology for a device which used time shifting while allowing the user to watch a different channel to that being recorded. (EchoStar and Dish Network split into totally separate companies in 2007.)

At that stage, Dish Network was ordered to pay $73.9 million to TiVo, a figure upheld on appeal. And with hindsight, that was the time to give up.

However, Dish Network continued to sell equipment which appeared to work in the same way, though its lawyers maintained that it had been tweaked to avoid technically breaching the patent. In October last year a court disagreed, and when that case was settled in June this year, the firm was ordered it to hand over another $103 million as punishment for violating the orders of the original case.

At that stage, TiVo decided to shoot for the compensation jackpot and demanded every single cent Dish Network has made from DVRs since the 2004 case: a whopping $974.5 million.

Fortunately for Dish Network, a court ruling this week took a slightly less onerous view, saying the firm had not acted willfully in continuing to violate the patent. It ordered Dish Network to pay out $1.25 per subscriber per month to cover what it should have paid in licensing fees for the technology, plus a $1 per subscriber per month as further punishment, a total of $200 million. Had the court ruled the action was willful, that figure could have been trebled.

Both sides seem happy: Tivo says the ruling shows Dish Network did violate its patent, while Dish Network says it’s been proven to have acted in good faith. That’s not the end of the matter though: Dish Network has already said it will appeal against the verdict.