A federal appeals court has upheld a contempt of court verdict handed down to DISH Network and EchoStar during its ongoing legal battle with the digital video recording (DVR) company TiVo.
The contempt verdict was announced by the US District Court for…
A federal appeals court has upheld a contempt of court verdict handed down to DISH Network and EchoStar during its ongoing legal battle with the digital video recording (DVR) company TiVo.
The contempt verdict was announced by the US District Court for Eastern Texas last autumn. It imposed sanctions against DISH and EchoStar over violations of a previous court-ordered injunction to cease the production and continued selling of DVR equipment that a jury had found to have infringed on TiVo patents.
DISH and EchoStar appealed the verdict, which sent the case to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Court’s verdict was that “we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing sanctions against EchoStar, we affirm the finding of contempt.”
The dispute between TiVo and the two sister companies dates back to 2004, when TiVo launched its initial suit in the Eastern Texas Court. The initial suit was made with regard to both hardware and software infringements surrounding TiVo’s “time warping” system, which allows viewers to watch one program while recording another on their DVR.
It was initially awarded US$106m in 2006. While the appeals process dragged on, the contempt ruling, which relates only to what the courts have deemed to be continuing software infringements, saw TiVo awarded another US$190m.
TiVo released a statement which said: “We are pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit fully affirmed the district court’s finding of contempt against EchoStar, including both the disablement and infringement provisions. “Additionally, this ruling paves the way for TiVo to receive the approximately $300M in damages and contempt sanctions awarded to us for EchoStar’s continued infringement through July 1, 2009. We will also seek further damages and contempt sanctions for the period of continued infringement thereafter.”
Though the Appeal Court did uphold the contempt verdict, it was not a unanimous decision. Judge Rader made a dissenting case in favour of the defendants.
In a joint statement, DISH and EchoStar said: “We are disappointed in the Federal Circuit’s split decision, but are pleased that Judge Rader agreed with our position.
“Therefore, we will be seeking en banc review by the full Federal Circuit. We also will be proposing a new design-around to the district court for approval. At this time, our DVR customers are not impacted.”
