TiVo Inc., the pioneer in digital-video recording services, told a federal judge it should be awarded $974.5 million from Douglas County-based Dish Network Corp. for contempt of court in their 5 1/2-year patent battle.
Dish, the second-biggest U.S. satellite-television provider, and EchoStar Corp. countered that the company has acted in good faith to ensure that a “design-around” didn’t infringe TiVo’s patent, so sanctions aren’t appropriate. However, if they were, $138 million would be a fair total for continuing to infringe a TiVo patent, Dish said.
Dish and EchoStar were ordered June 2 by U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texarkana, Texas, to stop using a digital-video recorder that infringed the TiVo patent. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had put Folsom’s order on hold until an appeal is decided.
The parties disagreed over the efforts that EchoStar has made to ensure its work- around was valid. TiVo attorney Morgan Chu said the companies “never sought review” of the work, while Rachel Krevans, an attorney for the two companies, said the work was done by outside attorneys, showing the good-faith effort to avoid infringement.
