A district court in the United States has ordered Dish Network Corporation and its sister company EchoStar to pay USD 200 million in damages to TiVo.
The fine was imposed after it was determined that Dish and EchoStar had violated on TiVo’s patents that deal with rewinding and pausing live TV.
Judge David Folsom also warned Charlie Ergen, founder of Dish Network Corp that he would “seriously entertain the award of enhanced sanctions” if Dish were to continue disregard the court’s orders. Earlier, Dish had advertised that its DVRs were “better than TiVos” while infringing of TiVo’s patents.
At the same time, Folsom accepted Ergen’s claims that Dish Network Corp believed it had been successful in designing a work around for TiVo’s patents.
“The decision confirms our belief that we designed around TiVo’s patent in good faith,” Dish Network Corp said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. “We believe that we ultimately will prevail on appeal.”
Earlier, Dish Network Corp was forced to develop an alternative DVR software after it had lost a patent infringement case filed by TiVo in 2004 for unauthorized use of “time warp” technology.
However, TiVo claimed that Dish Network Crop’s modified software was infringing its intellectual properties as well and demanded a permanent injunction.