Dish to pay TiVo $104 million

Dish Network Corp and EchoStar Corp will pay $104 million in damages to TiVo Inc after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied Dish's appeal of a patent infringement case.

The court's decision not to review an appellate court's ruling follows years of legal wrangling over TiVo's "Time Warp" software that allows users to record one television program while watching another via a digital video recorder.

TiVo had sued Dish Network in 2004 for digital video recorder (DVR) patent infringement and a Texas jury in April 2006 gave verdict in TiVo's favor. The verdict has since been tied up in appeals court, but the Supreme Court's decision now ends the dispute.

Still to be determined is how U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texas will rule on whether EchoStar owes TiVo more damages for allegedly failing to turn off its DVRs, as required in the injunction.


"Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, we will pay TiVo approximately $104 million ($74 million, the amount the jury awarded in 2006 plus interest). The money is in an escrow account and will be released to TiVo in the next few days," Dish said in a statement.

TiVo, in a statement, said it was looking forward to receiving the award, and is confident a lower court will enforce the injunction against Dish, which operates the No. 2 U.S. satellite television service.

"We believe that the design-around does not infringe Tivo's patent and that TiVo's pending motion for contempt should be denied," Dish said.

Dish, formerly known as EchoStar Communications Corp, recently spun off its technology assets, including its set-top box division, to create EchoStar Holding Corp.