Tivo Statement on Echostar Lawsuit

[Scott Greczkowski]

TiVo Statement on Developments in Lawsuit Against EchoStar

TiVo Statement on Developments in Lawsuit Against EchoStar

ALVISO, Calif., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services and advertising solutions for digital video recorders (DVRs), indicated today that on August 3, 2009, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued an Office action with respect to Claims 31 and 61of TiVo's Multimedia Timewarping System patent, U.S. patent number 6,233,389 (the "Barton Patent"), preliminarily rejecting the patent claims. TiVo offered the following comment on the PTO preliminary finding:

"The Office action is a preliminary finding, entered in the normal course before TiVo has had any opportunity to present its views. TiVo believes that the PTO's preliminary finding will not affect EchoStar's appeal of the June 2009 ruling by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas finding EchoStar to be in contempt of court." "This is an initial step in the lengthy process known as 'reexamination,' and it is not unusual for the PTO to provide a preliminary finding of invalidity and to then later find that the claims are valid after hearing an explanation from the patent owner. Indeed, this is precisely what happened with the first reexamination of the Barton Patent that EchoStar filed in 2005. Among other things, the next step in the reexamination process provides TiVo, for the first time, the opportunity to discuss and distinguish the references presented by EchoStar, and to present new claims."

 

[mike123abc]

Wow, this will be an interesting read from the patent office. I wonder how much of the patent they will reject... I wonder if they will finally resolve this before the patent expires.

 

[harshness]

Watch what happens to TiVo's stock today.

 

[MikeD-C05]

OKay, Translation please?

 

[Juan]

no patent no lawsuit

 

[vurbano]

preliminary.

 

[B_Kranski]

wow, that could be realy good news for Dish.

 

[Rey]

Get ready for the usual ............ charlie must be happy though

 

[Curtis0620]

Watch what happens to TiVo's stock today.

+1% as of 11:45 am

 

[MikeD-C05]

wow, that could be realy good news for Dish.

THAT would be WONDERFUL news for DISH! Then they would have no more excuses about charging the 5.98 dvr fee PER RECEIVER. They could finally drop it and only charge you one dvr fee per account like the competition does!

WAIT ! This is DISH we are talking about. THe home of the lowest Digital price /confusion packs with hd + plat included for $10.00, no now this hour it's only for new subs. Besides Charlie likes the extra fees and I am sure he would never give them up , even if he gained more subs because of it.

 

[Koilvr]

what happened to dish quarterly Earnings from August 10?

 

[goaliebob99]

This could be the Lifeboat coming to tug the sinking ship to saftey. I hope so! This Lawsuit has hurt dish more than what anyone knows.

 

[jacmyoung]

The PTO rejected the two TiVo's software claims, not the patent. But since E* only infringed on the two software claims, it is the game changing decision. TiVo will appeal this decision, but the appeal process will take years.

At the meantime, I think E* may ask the courts to stay all related litigations pending TiVo's appeal. Any lawyers?

If ultimately the PTO's decison is unheld, that will mean E* was "wrongly" ordered to pay TiVo that $105M damages

 

[navychop]

:sob: for Tivo, or maybe :neener

:clap for Dish & Echostar

 

[MikeD-C05]

The PTO rejected the two TiVo's software claims, not the patent. But since E* only infringed on the two software claims, it is the game changing decision. TiVo will appeal this decision, but the appeal process will take years.

At the meantime, I think E* may ask the courts to stay all related litigations pending TiVo's appeal. Any lawyers?

If ultimately the PTO's decison is unheld, that will mean E* was "wrongly" ordered to pay TiVo that $105M damages

Wouldn't that mean TIVO would have to pay back the 105m to DISH ? LOoks like CHarlie being stubborn and fighting these lawsuits would pay off again. Any one remember what happened with the distant lawsuit a few years back?

 

[charlesrshell]

Wouldn't that mean TIVO would have to pay back the 105m to DISH ? LOoks like CHarlie being stubborn and fighting these lawsuits would pay off again. Any one remember what happened with the distant lawsuit a few years back?

I remember reading about it one time long time ago but forgot what happened with the distant lawsuit. Can you give us a quick short version? Thanks MikeD-C05.

 

[LER]

Any one remember what happened with the distant lawsuit a few years back?

Eventually, Charlie and Echostar LOST the Distants suit, and can NOT provide ANY distant service to ANYONE. This is why they have the AAD stuff. Also, it's why Significantly Viewed DMA's aren't on Dish at all.

 

[whatchel1]

1 question

Is Tivo in good enough shape to be able to stay in business?

 

[MikeD-C05]

Eventually, Charlie and Echostar LOST the Distants suit, and can NOT provide ANY distant service to ANYONE. This is why they have the AAD stuff. Also, it's why Significantly Viewed DMA's aren't on Dish at all.

Yes that is true but there was a little more to it then that. Charlie was going to pay each network Abc ,Nbc,Cbs and Fox , a large penalty fee to keep the ability to keep broadcasting distants. FOX network led by Rupert Murdoch and who was the owner of DIRECTV at the time, blocked the deal and refused to sign on for obvious personal/business reasons . Charlie pulled an unexpected hail Mary pass and signed a deal with All American Direct to provide distants by leasing a transponder to them. DISH still is able to provide distants to its customers via AAD now in both sd and now HD. He also makes money on leasing the transponders each month to AAD. The networks went to court and the judge said yes it was legal for DISH to subcontract with AAD to provide distants , since they were two separate companies. Rupert Murdoch lost again, and none of the networks got any penalty money at all. So his stubborn attitude about never giving up and fighting lawsuits paid off in the end. Not to mention that DISH got to sell distants all those years before this decision to anyone that wanted them and made a lot of money.

The same will be true now if TIVO has no patent claims . DISH will win their lawsuit and I would gather that TIVO would have to repay the $105 million if the original court decision was wrong based on the new information by the patent office. Charlie wins again and gets his money back that he paid . DISH keeps all their dvr receivers running and the company looks good in the public's eyes. TIvo goes down again.

 

[navychop]

Is Tivo in good enough shape to be able to stay in business?

Good question. Maybe DirecTV will pump more money into them. But in today's economy, I think Tivo's best option is to cut a deal or get absorbed. Excuse me, "assimilated."