Echostar's TiVo Appeal Rejected: New DVR Crippling Likely

Somewhat ironically, given we were only talking about TiVo and Echostar's lawsuit the other day (in relation to Apple's patent spat with HTC) but the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just rejected Echostar/DISH's contempt appeal.  Echostar had sought to have the modifications it made to its DVRs recognized as meeting the requirements of the original patent infringement ruling; however, TiVo disagreed, and the courts upheld their opinion finding Echostar in contempt.  Now, despite Echostar's attempt to overturn that decision, they've been rejected once again.

"Appellants (collectively, "EchoStar") appeal from the district court's decision finding them in contempt of the court's permanent injunction order. TiVo Inc. v. Dish Network Corp., 640 F. Supp. 2d 853 (E.D. Tex. 2009). Because we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing sanctions against EchoStar, we affirm the finding of contempt."

The outcome, it seems, will result in further crippling of Echostar/DISH boxes, together with more monetary penalties to be paid to TiVo.  Echostar was originally forced to push out a firmware upgrade to remove such functionality as infringed on TiVo's patents; however TiVo insisted that the changes made were minor and insufficient.

As for the financial penalty, that's yet to be announced but TiVo's share price has rocketed all the same.  The company announced a new range of DVRs earlier this week, the Premiere and Premiere XL.