AfterDawn: News

Dish Network ordered to pay $200 million in TiVo case

Dish Network and Echostar Corp. have been ordered by a federal Judge to pay about $200 million to TiVo Inc. for violating a permanent injunction that stemmed from a 2004 lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought by TiVo when Dish was distributing DVRs that contained an emulation of TiVo's "Time Warp" feature that enables the pausing of live TV or re-winding.

TiVo won its initial lawsuit against Dish, and Dish was ordered to pay $105 million to TiVo. While the case was on appeal, Dish decided to take a workaround solution and downloaded modified software to DVR's in use by its customers. TiVo protested saying the workaround software still infringes its patent and prevailed when it asked a District court for an injunction.



In June, the federal court found that Dish Network had violated the injunction. TiVo has asked that Dish be made pay $1 billion for using the technology between April 2008 and July 2009. Judge David Folsom of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas awarded TiVo $110 million in damages and $90 million in sanctions.

Dish said on Friday that it did not believe the sanctions were warranted, but was happy that the court rejected TiVo's request for $1 billion. "The decision confirms our belief that we designed around TiVo's patent in good faith," Dish said in a statement. "We believe that we ultimately will prevail on appeal."

Written by: James Delahunty @ 4 Sep 2009 20:58

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• ZippyDSM

  mmmm are they trolling or did dish go ahead and steal stuff and hope no one would notice?

  5.9.2009 09:37 #1

• DCalvert

  When Sun Healthcare Group Inc violated a California injunction in a Sunbridge Skilled Nursing Facility in Newport Beach, California in 2003 we notified the Dept of Justice of five deaths from their lack of staffing according to law and broken equipment. However, the Dept of Justice chose to instead pursue the employees of an Encinitas facility of Sun's instead, then later drop the charges. Why? Policital Corruption? In June, 2009 I provided evidence (that the CEO Rick Matros and Dr Chauncey Hunker, risk manager knowingly violated the injunction and even wrote me a letter stating so) to Sun's board of directors and attorney Fonda & Fraser LLP in Anaheim, California. It will be interesting to see if they keep their positions on the board.
  When I sued Sun for my mother's death, as she was one who died, SUN cheated me in mediation by getting my attorney to threaten me for the CEO that if I pursued the case to jury trial he'd make me out to be a crazy woman and rip me a new A. I caved, having just had pancreatic cancer surgery I'm sure they didn't think I'd live from. I was one in a million -and survived. Months later when I regained my strength I sued that attorney, Daniel Leipold, for malpractice. He died in his sleep 2 weeks after learning from Tom Swann, Sun's attorney, that I'd retained Andres & Andres. Think he was stressed? I won that case in 2008.
  The CEO of SUN attempted to obtain a restraining order against me for stating he as manager and SUN were slumlords. Judge Gregory W Jones of Harbor Court, Orange County, California, responded with a loud "NO, she's not dangerous to him or anyone, he's the dangerous one, he killed her mother and she's proven it. Freedom of speech, protected speech, peaceful protest. His attorneys should know better than to file a malicious prosecution against her. She should file a slapp back lawsuit and sue that CEO." My attorney stated the Judge certainly couldn't expect me to carry around a family pix of the CEO -the man I proved killed my mother.
  
  Deborah Calvert, Newport Beach, Calif
  former assistant to Buzz Aldrin Ph.D.

  6.9.2009 02:47 #2