TiVo awarded $200m in damages in EchoStar case, consumers not awarded end to the Echostar case
By Nilay Patel 
posted Sep 5th 2009 7:28PM
posted Sep 5th 2009 7:28PM
Okay, so it's not the cool billion dollars in damages we'd heard TiVo was asking for, but $200 million ain't chump change if you're broke, you know? That's the amount in contempt damages TiVo will get if EchoStar loses its upcoming appeal in the endless time warp patent case, bringing the total amount of money on the table to nearly $400 million. As usual, that means virtually nothing for the average Dish or TiVo customer, but at least the lawyers involved can all buy new Audis for the winter now.
Can we stop linking to articles that require registration or subscription? There are plenty of other news sites that do not require registration, ex:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10345910-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
And, as long as Dish refuses to respect the patent process and license Tivo's technology, the case will continue. They continue to use it during appeal, which means there is an additional period of damages building even now.
The death blow for Dish (my employer, so I have a definite interest in this) will be when Tivo and the judge stop asking for money, and force the disabling of infringing DVR's.
Something like 2/3 of Dish customers have DVR service. The company simply couldn't sustain the blow that would result from turning off 8 million DVR's, especially if/when people figured out that their contracts would then be void, and they would be free to go.
As a DISH customer if, after I paid $100 for a VIP 722 DVR they tell me that they are turning it off for something that is not my fault, you damn right I will turn them off and go straight to Direct. They aren't the only satellite TV provider.
That's really a big award. Dish Tv rocks man!!!