ALVISO, CA and ENGLEWOOD, CO – Satellite broadcaster Dish Network and set-top box supplier Echostar have settled their long-running legal dispute with TiVo over video-recording technology.
The three companies announced Monday that Dish and Echostar will pay TiVo $500 million over five years, including an initial payment of $300 million, as part of an agreement to dismiss all pending litigation. The settlement gives Dish and EchoStar rights to use certain TiVo patents for video recording.
“The results of TiVo’s formidable intellectual property enforcement program speak for themselves, and consequently, we are pleased to put this litigation behind us and move forward”, said Dish Network chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen, in a statement. "Additionally, we believe that our agreement with TiVo provides us a competitive advantage as one of the few multichannel operators with rights to operate under TiVo’s Time Warp patent, which ultimately will allow us to enhance the performance of our award-winning DVRs. We look forward to continuing to offer Dish Network customers the most choices in video service.”
TiVo first filed its patent-infringement lawsuit in 2004 against Dish and EchoStar when they were a single company known as EchoStar Communications Inc. The business split in two in 2008.
“We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with Dish Network and EchoStar which recognizes the value of our intellectual property,” said TiVo president and CEO, Tom Rogers. “The compensation from this settlement, including the resulting reduction in legal expenditures, puts TiVo in an enviable financial and strategic position.”
Rogers also said that TiVo will continue to fight “aggressively” to defend its intellectual property rights against “other parties”. TiVo is currently involved in patent lawsuits with AT&T, Microsoft and Verizon.
