TiVo, EchoStar Court Battle Heats Up

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

May 24, 2006, 3:10 PM

TiVo has filed an injunction in its continuing patent battle with EchoStar, which runs the DISH Network, asking the court to bar the company from manufacturing or selling digital video recorders. The Alviso, Calif., based company had won a jury ruling against EchoStar in April.

However, EchoStar shot back, saying in a statement that the Patent Office had overturned some of TiVo's patent claims. "We are pleased that the United States Patent and Trademark Office yesterday rejected many of TiVo's patent claims as invalid," the company said in a statement.

It called the USPTO's decision in conjunction with a favorable decision from the Court of Appeals "steps in the right direction" as it prepares to defend itself against the injunction. However, TiVo replied via a statement, calling EchoStar's claims "misleading spin."

"The USPTO reexamined all 61 claims set forth in the Barton patent confirming the validity of most of the claims, including two of the claims that EchoStar has been found to have willfully infringed," TiVo replied. "While certain of the patent claims were rejected by the patent office, this should in no way impact the jury verdict."

TiVo plans to discuss the implications of the patent ruling and its next steps during an earnings conference call after the close of the market Wednesday.

In the jury case, EchoStar was found guilty of willfully infringing upon TiVo's "time warp" patent. However, a Court of Appeals found the Texas court abused its discretion in connection with key trial evidence withheld from the jury, putting the ruling in some danger of being overturned.