TiVo Wins Court Ruling Against Dish, EchoStar

TiVo won a US appeals court ruling that Dish Network and EchoStar are still infringing its patent and should stop providing digital-video recording services.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's finding that the companies were still in violation of TiVo's patent, even after claiming they had changed their technology enough to avoid infringement. TiVo claimed the changes weren't sufficient. Changes made after Dish lost a trial in 2006 were "not a major redesign of the software," the court ruled in a 2-1 decision. Dish and EchoStar said they would ask the entire 12- member appeals court to hear the case, so for now the order to stop providing the service remains on hold.

"Today's overwhelming victory significantly improves TiVo's ability to win new business and the rates it can demand for its technology from future deals, while also improving penetration of its DVR advertising platform," Tony Wible, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia, wrote in a note today. "The courts have ruled in TiVo's favor numerous times over the past five years, which should help the company in the company's litigation against AT&T, Verizon and Microsoft."