The best defense…

…is a good offense. Dish Network and EchoStar, which used to be one company, have asked a Delaware state court to rule that the new satellite TV DVR from Dish/EchoStar doesn’t infringe on patents held by TiVo. Meanwhile, Dish/EchoStar are still battling a federal court ruling that they owe TiVo $74 million for patent infringement by their previous DVR.  

The move by Dish/EchoStar in Delaware is seen as an attempt to pre-empt an expected move by TiVo. The latter is expected to seek a ruling by the federal court in Texas that has been handling the long-running patent case that Dish/EchoStar are in contempt of the federal court order for introducing the new DVR, which TiVo insists infringes its patents just like the previous one.

“We believe any contempt motion by Tivo should be denied because we are in full compliance with the injunction,'' Dish/EchoStar said in announcing their lawsuit. They have asked the court in Delaware to rule that the new DVR does not infringe on TiVo’s patent and bar TiVo from making any more public statements to the contrary.

RBR/TVBR observation: Somehow, we doubt that TiVo will simply say “OK” if the Delaware court makes the ruling that Dish/EchoStar are seeking. This likely is going to play out for sometime yet to come.

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