TiVo awarded $200 million in damages in DISH suit

TiVo awarded $200 million in damages in DISH suit
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. district court awarded TiVo Inc, a maker of DVR boxes, nearly $200 million in damages in its long-running patent case with DISH Network Corp and EchoStar Corp.

The U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas ruled to impose contempt sanctions against sister companies DISH and EchoStar for violating a court-ordered permanent injunction from April 2008 through July 1, 2009.

TiVo had originally asked the court to impose costs of nearly $1 billion on Dish and EchoStar, but the judge ruled that was "unreasonable".

TiVo said it was pleased by the court's ruling, which it said brings the total damages and sanctions in the case to approximately $400 million through July 1, plus attorney fees.

Shares in TiVo were up 54 cents or 5.5 percent to $10.34 while DISH shares were up 88 cents or 5.4 percent to $17.18. Echostar shares were unchanged at $18.00.

The court found that contempt sanctions equal to a rate of $2.25 per DVR subscriber per month were appropriate.

DISH and EchoStar said in a statement they will appeal this latest ruling.

"While we disagree that any amount of sanctions was warranted, the decision confirms our belief that we designed around TiVo's patent in good faith. We believe that we ultimately will prevail on appeal."

The case is: TiVo Inc v Dish Network Corp No: 2:04-CV-01 (DF) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

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