San Francisco, Calif. A US district court has ordered Dish Network Corp and sister company EchoStar to pay TiVo $200 million in damages.
According to Reuters, the fine was imposed after the US District Court for Eastern Texas determined that Dish and EchoStar had violated a permanent injunction banning the use of modified technology to rewind and pause live TV.
Judge David Folsom also warned Dish founder Charlie Ergen that he would “seriously entertain the award of enhanced sanctions” if Dish continued to disregard the court’s orders. Indeed, Dish had advertised that its DVRs were “better than TiVos” while infringing TiVo’s patent.
Nevertheless, Folsom accepted Ergen’s claims that Dish “believed” it had been successful in its efforts to design around the infringement.
“The decision confirms our belief that we designed around TiVo’s patent in good faith,” Dish said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. “We believe that we ultimately will prevail on appeal.”
Dish was forced to code alternative DVR software after losing a 2004 patent infringement case initiated by TiVo for the unauthorized use of the latter’s “time warp” technology.
However, Tivo claimed that the modified software again infringed on its patent and demanded a permanent injunction.
