Yet Another EchoStar-Tivo Battle

Posted by Eriq Gardner

This legal mess may never go away. DISH Network and EchoStar Corp have filed a lawsuit in Delaware court, asking a judge to find that their new DVR software does not infringe a TiVo patent.

Earlier in the year, DISH Network lost an appeal at the nation's second highest appeals court trying to overturn a $74 million jury verdict for infringing upon Tivo's DVR patent. At the time, DISH said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and promised to soon deploy "next-generation DVR software" that would be free of patent trouble.

Rather than going to market with a cloud hanging over its corporate head, DISH is preemptively asking the court to rule its new DVR software is legit. The move also brings the dispute to the likely friendlier venue of Delaware. Alleged patent infringers have no love of Federal court in Texas, where many patent cases are filed.