Mtnmike said:
A "heckuva a lot more" may be just around the corner when the dust settles on the TIVO/Echostar lawsuit. You can be certain the legal costs of this decision will be passed on to the DISH customer. Not to mention the potential loss of DVR service.
In any event this action is going to have a serious impact on DISH's ability to compete for new customers until this is settled, and that translates into additional revenue loss. The pressure is on DISH to find a way to settle, and TIVO holds all the cards. DISH loses regardless if the court decides or they settle.
In the meantime stock will continue to plunge and company worth will drop (not a good thing) while costs go up and customer base stagnates or falls. Do the math and be prepared to pay for this disaster if you are a DISH customer. Increased cost to the customer will result in more defections and the competition will seize this opportunity to offer more incentives to jump from DISH.
Pepper I hate to say I told you so. But read on.........
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060828/tivo_echostar.html?.v=2
Judge Stops EchoStar Suit Against TiVo
Monday August 28, 2:02 pm ET
By David Koenig, AP Business Writer
Judge Stops EchoStar Countersuit Against TiVo As Government Reviews Patent Claims
DALLAS (AP) -- A federal judge has handed the owner of the Dish satellite-TV network another setback in its feud with TiVo Inc., delaying a countersuit against the pioneer in digital video recording technology.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline M. Craven of Texarkana blocked EchoStar Communications Corp.'s patent-infringement lawsuit against TiVo and Humax USA Inc. while the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reviews patents claimed by EchoStar.
Craven, who issued the stay last month, made it final when EchoStar declined to appeal, TiVo spokesman Elliot Sloane said Monday.
TiVo's revolutionary digital video recorder, or DVR, technology records TV programs without the hassles of videotape, letting users pause live TV, view instant replays and begin watching programs even before the recording has finished.
TiVo sued EchoStar in 2004, and in April a jury in Marshall found that EchoStar had infringed on a TiVo patent in making its own set-top box with DVR capabilities.
This month, the judge who presided over that trial ordered EchoStar to pay $89.6 million in damages -- more than the jury had awarded.
The trial judge, David Folsom, also ordered EchoStar to disable more than 3 million of its DVRs that jurors found used elements of TiVo technology, but a federal appeals court this month delayed Folsom's order while the case is appealed.
EchoStar filed its own lawsuit against TiVo in 2005. TiVo issued a statement Monday saying it was pleased with Craven's decision to delay the countersuit while the government reviews EchoStar's patents. TiVo charges that patent officials failed to review older technology that would make EchoStar's patent claims invalid.
The countersuit had been scheduled for trial early next year.
EchoStar spokeswoman Kathie Gonzalez said Monday the company is "anxious to get to trial because we believe Tivo's DVRs infringe on our technology," but acknowledged it will be a long process. In a regulatory filing, the company said the Patent Office review "could take many years."
TiVo, based in Alviso, Calif., hopes that court victories against EchoStar will give it power to negotiate royalty and license deals with other cable and satellite-TV providers whose customers use DVRs other than TiVo's. Dish is the nation's No. 2 satellite-TV network behind DirecTV.
TiVo shares fell 3 cents, to $7.82, in afternoon trading Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, while shares of Englewood, Colo.-based EchoStar increased 57 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $32.27.
