Dish Network has been granted a judicial review of a ruling that it has infringed a TiVo patent in its digital video recorders. The United States Court of Appeals in Washington has asked for a full review of the case, which goes back six years. At stake are millions of dollars in damages and possible future royalties.
TiVo sued EchoStar in 2004 for patent infringement and won the case and an injunction. The EchoStar Dish Network paid TiVo $104 million in damages but developed a workaround which it said did not infringe the “Time Warp” patent. The judge disagreed and ordered the defendants to pay an additional $103 million in damages plus interest, together with around $200 million for contempt.
The ruling was upheld on appeal but now a rehearing has been granted. Among other things, this will consider whether the workaround solution should be held in contempt where there is a substantial question as to whether the injunction is ambiguous in scope.
“Dish Network and EchoStar are pleased that the full Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has granted their petition for rehearing en banc,” said the companies in a statement. “We believe the issues that will be considered by the full court on rehearing will have a profound impact on innovation in the United States for years to come.”
TiVo responding by saying: “We are disappointed that we do not yet have finality in this case despite years of litigation but we remain confident that the Federal Circuit’s ruling in our favour will be reaffirmed after all of the judges on the Federal Circuit have had the opportunity to review the merits of this case.”
TiVo has also filed suits against AT&T and Verizon for infringement of the same patent.
Shares in TiVo fell by over 40% on the news, losing the gains they had made since Dish lost its appeal.