The battle between Dish and TiVo rages on. As reported by Bloomberg, a judge has ruled that Dish and EchoStar must pay TiVo around $200 million for continuing to provide DVR service to its customers after being told to stop because it was violating TiVo’s patents. Dish and EchoStar plan to appeal the ruling.
The new ruling brings Dish and EchoStar’s total payments to TiVo to around $400 million in damages and other fees after a five year legal battle. In this latest round, Dish and EchoStar say they tried to work around TiVo’s patents, but a judge ruled that they had failed to do so. The $200 million figure is based on a $2.25 per month royalty for every Dish DVR user, extending from April 2008, when an appeals court reaffirmed TiVo’s patent, to July 1 2009.
It could have been worse. TiVo was looking for nearly $1 billion — or all of Dish’s DVR profits — as it accused Dish and EchoStar of willingly infringing on its patent. The judge ruled that the infringement had been unwilling (in other words, the companies had tried to work around the patent but failed to do so), hence the smaller penalty.
None of this bodes well for AT&T and Verizon, who are also being sued by Tivo for infringing on its “Time Warping” patent.
Was there any offers to settle before the judgement?
Often there are complaints about the size of damages when a previous offer to settle with patentee was rebuffed by the infringer with “We’ll bury you in court! We’ll all be dead by the time this is over!”. And then they complain when stuck with huge tab.
the problem is both companies are making too much money, so their court cases will be long, very long. $1 Billion in profits is big.
Isn’t it?
No, tivo isn’t making any money…. profits that is
I’m happy to see this affirmation of TiVo’s rights. The TiVo interface is radically superior to any competitors that I’ve seen and they paved the way for commercial success of the DVR idea. Rather than trying to “bypass” TiVo they should just get TiVo to write a version especially for satellite boxes, then those users would get the TiVo interface and be happier anyway.
Imaginary Property is just one more brick in the wall of the prison that holds 99% of the people on this planet.
+1
And Echostar is one of the proud and ruthless guardians of that prison. Pay-per-view anyone?
Deep WayneB…deeeeep! ;o)
I wish Tivo would focus on building a product. It seems like their main business these days is filing lawsuits.
Switched from comcast to dish network. And wow very impressed with the service.
Why don’t they just come out with the darn 922vip already.
Tivo is a disappointment.
Didn’t TiVo actually invent everything they have patented? I’m just as much against crazy patents as the next guy, but this isn’t one of them. Do you remember what it was like before DVRs? It’s not like Directv or Dish was on the cusp of putting out their own DVR when TiVo came along – they were doing NOTHING. TiVo forced itself on the mostly unwilling world. Don’t you remember that? So now that everyone wants a DVR and providers need them, why shouldn’t they have to license those patents?
Now in the grand scheme of things, TiVo hasn’t been good at all at forging licensing deals, but that’s neither here nor there. The patent system sometimes works. In this case, I fully support rewarding TiVo for inventing before anyone else. Don’t you think if there was *any* prior art, Dish would have found it?
TiVo did not invent the DVR. Not even close. Their success was commercial.
The first video recorder was probably the one invented by BBC Equipment Dept in about 1958, by a team including John Austin.
http://www.bbce...chievements.htm
The first digital video recorder was possibly developed for CBS in 1965.
http://www.pvrw...21/pvr-history/
TiVo’s first product was 30+ years later.
I’m fired up today.
So does anyone think that Dish or DirecTV would have created a DVR if TiVO or a similar small company never came along. I think at the top of the list of people who hate DVRs is TV advertises followed very closely by TV providers. DVRs destroy TV advertising and TV programming. The only people who like DVRs are all of us schmucks watching. Thank god the small guy came along and gave us the service *we* wanted. Now the small guy patented the shit they invented. So pay up!
No I don’t work for TiVo. But I do love their stuff. It’s engineered the best especially compared the super crapulicious no name DVRs you get from any of the providers.
I’m very much against idiodic patents, but in the case of Tivo its very clear they rightly deserved patents for their various innovations. I’m just hoping this keeps Tivo afloat, because I love my TivoHD. I have yet to see any other DVR product is anywhere near the level of Tivo.
If only I’d had the nous and a rich uncle to patent time shifting as a 14 year old in the early 80s when I first thought of it, I’d be 400 million richer. Oh shit. The patent would have expired by now. Fucking patent bollocks paradox arse.