Hey, not so fast: EchoStar wins stay
Co. finds temporary relief from court defeat
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The satcaster, embroiled in a patent dispute with TiVo, was ordered by a Texas court on Thursday to stop selling and turn off about 4 million of its digital DVRs within 30 days.
But on Friday, a federal appeals court in Washington temporarily blocked that order while it considers a long-term stay of the injunction.
"As a result of the stay, EchoStar can continue to sell and provide to consumers all of its digital video recorder models," EchoStar said in a statement. "We continue to believe the Texas decision was wrong and should be reversed on appeal."
Stay of the injunction gives EchoStar temporary relief from a huge court defeat that also would have forced the company to pay $89.6 million in damages.
Ruling came after a federal jury in April determined that EchoStar had infringed on TiVo's patent for the "time warp" process, which allows a DVR to record one program while playing back another.
"This decision recognizes that our intellectual property is valuable and will ensure that moving forward EchoStar will be unable to use our patented technology without our authorization," TiVo said in a statement.
EchoStar pledged to appeal the verdict.
EchoStar operates Dish Network, the fourth-largest pay TV service in the U.S. with 12.5 million subscribers. TiVo had hoped to force the company to pay a license fee for the use of the technology; such a revenue stream is considered vital to the company's future.
