DISH Network and EchoStar Statement Regarding Tivo and PTO Action
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Aug. 26, 2009 – DISH Network L.L.C., a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), and EchoStar Technologies L.L.C., a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), issued the following statement regarding recent developments in EchoStar Communications Corporation vs. Tivo:
“We are pleased the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) dismissed Tivo’s petition to vacate EchoStar’s re-examination of Tivo’s patent. In the decision, the Director of the Central Re-examination Unit of the PTO specifically found that ‘the references of record may be used to find that a substantial new question of patentability is present, [and] the decision of the [PTO] examiner has not been shown to be in error’ in granting EchoStar’s re-examination petition. The PTO’s decision clears the way for the re-examination to continue, which we believe will result in a Final Office Action invalidating the software claims of Tivo’s patent. These software claims are the very same claims that EchoStar was found to have infringed in the contempt ruling now pending on appeal.”