The long-running patent dispute between Dish Network and TiVo has finally drawn to a close. Dish and EchoStar Corp have agreed to pay TiVo $500 million (€337 million) as part of an agreement that ends the current legal action between the two companies.
$300 million will be paid immediately with the remaining $200 million due in six equal annual installments between 2012 and 2017.
In a statement Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said the company was pleased to be able to put the action behind it. “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 Charlie Ergen, chairman and CEO of DISH Network. “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.”
“We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with DISH Network and EchoStar which recognizes the value of our intellectual property,” said Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo. “The compensation from this settlement, including the resulting reduction in legal expenditures, puts TiVo in an enviable financial and strategic position. This settlement, which brings the total compensation paid by DISH Network for use of TiVo’s ‘389 patent family to over $600 million, demonstrates the significant return afforded to our shareholders by diligent enforcement of TiVo’s intellectual property rights. Those efforts will aggressively continue with other parties.”
The settlement comes less than a fortnight after a US appeal court upheld a ruling against former parent EchoStar that it had infringed patents held by digital recording specialist TiVo.
A series of actions have been brought by TiVo against Echostar since a jury first found in its favour four years ago.
It has also been announced that TiVo will play a role in helping DISH Network promote the Blockbuster digital video service. The video rental chain was recently acquired by Dish.