With all the news of TiVo's victory of EchoStar in Court, and the judge's order that EchoStar may or may not soon have to cease selling PVRs, you may have forgotten that EchoStar filed its own patent infringement suit against TiVo last year.Well, in another big win for TiVo, the federal courts have ordered a stay on that lawsuit until the patents in question can be reexamined.
Specifically, EchoStar had claimed that TiVo and Humax were violating patents for "Interruption Tolerant Video Program Viewing," "Multimedia Direct Access Storage Device and Formatting Method." EchoStar's original complaint had alleged two other patent infringements, but it's not clear from today's announcement what the status will be of those patent challenges.
In a press release distributed this morning, Tivo said " TiVo will continue to defend its technology vigorously and will not be intimidated by claims such as those EchoStar asserted against TiVo -- claims EchoStar asserted in response to TiVo's successful suit against EchoStar."
No word yet from EchoStar's press room. But in other legal news, EchoStar announced a settlement to a 9-year legal battel with ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox over distribution of local network affiliates.The satellite provider will expand its local network channel offerings from 165 to 175 markets by the end of the year, which will cover 95% of the U.S. The company will also pay affiliates $100 million to help ensure the stations can continue to offer local channels to subscribers outside of the local market.
