Echostar Prevails In Patent Suit

[Scott Greczkowski]

ECHOSTAR PREVAILS IN PATENT SUIT

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – September 17, 2007 – EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) today issued the following statement regarding recent developments in the Forgent Networks, Inc. lawsuit:

Forgent did not appeal the unanimous jury verdict handed down in May that found invalid a DVR patent Forgent accused EchoStar of violating. The case is now over. Forgent also paid EchoStar $90,000 in costs, as ordered by the trial court.

DirecTV and various cable companies settled with Forgent for $28 million before trial.

# # #

About EchoStar Communications Corporation

EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH) has been a leader for more than 26 years in satellite TV equipment sales and support worldwide. The Company’s DISH Network® is the fastest-growing pay-TV provider in the country since 2000 and currently serves more than 13.585 million satellite TV customers. DISH Network offers a premier line of industry-leading Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and hundreds of video and audio channels as well as the most national HD and International channels in the U.S., Interactive TV, Latino and sports programming. DISH Network also provides a variety of package and price options including the lowest all-digital price in America and the DishDVR Advantage Package. EchoStar is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and is a Fortune 300 company. Visit EchoStar Communications Corporation or call 1-800-333-DISH (3474) for more information.

 

[digiblur]

Forgent also paid EchoStar $90,000 in costs, as ordered by the trial court.

DirecTV and various cable companies settled with Forgent for $28 million before trial.

Nice! Not counting the extra money the cable co's spent advertising about DishNetwork supposedly shutting off their customer's DVR's.

 

[navychop]

YES! :clap

Charlie does it again!
:up:up:up

:

 

[goaliebob99]

WOW directv caves in and pays.. Echostar wins and gets off without paying a dime and makes money on it. Nice!

 

[navychop]

Char-LEE! Char-LEE! Char-LEE!




P.S.- Good for Charlie, but even "gooder" that one of these patent system abusers gets smacked down!

 

[Darrell S]

If they could just win the TIVO suit, we wouldn't have to worry about our DVR'S turning into paperweights or VCR's.

 

[bestboff]

What is the status of the Tivo lawsuit?

 

[David_Levin]

What is the status of the Tivo lawsuit?

There was a brief discussion here, but I haven't seen a mention since:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/102967-tivo-vs-echostar-lawsuit.html

 

[vampz26]

Oral arguments set in EchoStar-TiVo case

the appellate court has scheduled to hear oral arguments on Octover 4th.


-T

 

[MikeD-C05]

SO in a little more than two weeks the Tivo thing might be settled one way or another.

 

[mdwatt]

I still have people (customers) asking me about this all the time.

 

[dodge]

If I lose my DVR, I will sue dish and Tivo, because they would have broke my 18 month contrat with dish.

 

[mike123abc]

Tivo's position is much weaker now that it used to be. The supreme court has been busy making patents less enforceable and making them actually having to prove it is a new concept and not an adaptation to new technology. The burden of proof is much higher now, the appeals court could easily throw out the case or send it back to jury with much tougher standards.

 

[KE4EST]

I'll be glad when the Tivo suit is over with so things can go on, but I an sure there will be other suits.

 

[Tyralak]

Tivo's position is much weaker now that it used to be. The supreme court has been busy making patents less enforceable and making them actually having to prove it is a new concept and not an adaptation to new technology. The burden of proof is much higher now, the appeals court could easily throw out the case or send it back to jury with much tougher standards.

Didn't Tivo pinch their DVR technology from ReplayTV? Why isn't ReplayTV suing the crap out of Tivo?

 

[navychop]

SO in a little more than two weeks the Tivo thing might be settled one way or another.

Naw, they'll yammer in court endlessly and then the court will take forever to consider the merits, etc.

And yes, I think Tivo took from Replay and maybe others. Replay is in no shape to take action- but maybe they had some sort of settlement anyway.

 

[RVD420]

Naw, they'll yammer in court endlessly and then the court will take forever to consider the merits, etc.

And yes, I think Tivo took from Replay and maybe others. Replay is in no shape to take action- but maybe they had some sort of settlement anyway.

Tivo and ReplayTV reached a deal years ago. They infringed one each other patents.


BTW...for those who do not know better ReplayTV = Tivo for smart people.

 

[Greg Bimson]

Tivo's position is much weaker now that it used to be. The supreme court has been busy making patents less enforceable and making them actually having to prove it is a new concept and not an adaptation to new technology. The burden of proof is much higher now, the appeals court could easily throw out the case or send it back to jury with much tougher standards.

Good lord...

The telephone was patented even though the telegraph existed. There were actually two submissions for patents on the exact same day for the telephone. Which means two people literally had the same idea. Does this make the telephone, in the late 1800's, a "new concept"?

Or, is the ability to watch a program while it is still recording a "new concept"? The PTO has upheld TiVo's patent in question, and the only group that can now strike it down is the Supreme Court. And if you look at the Supreme Court ruling very carefully, the only patent SCOTUS invalidated was one that simply combined two patents.

Right now, the only question is if Echostar can win on appeal or at least have the courts render a lower monetary number from the original ruling. If not, Echostar will have to come up with about $150 million just to give to TiVo for their current infringing devices, not to mention any other royalty payments that would be due from the settlement point forward. Go and look at the NTP v. RIM case, where RIM, the makers of the Blackberry, had to pay $612M to NTP to settle a possible injunction claim.