Federal Circuit Affirms TiVo Decision

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), in an en banc hearing, affirmed a 2010 decision finding that EchoStar infringed on home entertainment company TiVo's patent (U.S. 6,233,389) for "Multimedia Time Warping System." The patent allows television viewers to simultaneously record and play television broadcasts using a digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo sued EchoStar for patent infringement in 2004. In 2006 TiVo was awarded over $70 million in damages and EchoStar was ordered to disable the infringing digital-video recorders. Subsequent court actions have culminated in the current CAFC decision. Click here for the full text of the opinion.

Update: On May 2, 2011, EchoStar (now Dish Network) agreed to pay TiVo $500 million to settle the litigation.