Alviso, Calif. – TiVo (NASD: TIVO) announced on Monday that it has
settled its long-running patent infringement dispute against EchoStar (NASD: SATS) and DISH
Network (NASD: DISH), with the satellite TV providers agreeing to pay TiVo $500 million.
Under the terms, DISH and EchoStar will pay TiVo $300 million up front, with
$200 million to be distributed in six equal annual installments between 2012
and 2017. As part of the settlement, the companies have also cross-licensed
their respective digital video recorder patents.
TiVo will also help DISH
promote its newly-acquired Blockbuster digital video service.
"The
compensation from this settlement, including the resulting reduction in legal
expenditures, puts TiVo in an enviable financial and strategic position," said
TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers.
"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."
TiVo first
sued EchoStar for patent infringement over its "Time Warp" digital
video recorder patent in 2004.
That court case, and subsequent filings with the
U.S. Patent Office, were eventually tilted in TiVo’s favor in a ruling last
month at the U.S. Court of Appeals, which left EchoStar and DISH with a last
resort option of filing an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3b8r88p
(TiVo statement)
