EchoStar put out a press release this morning stating that the company will ask the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to block the injunction requiring EchoStar to stop selling PVRs.
Echostar's take on the whole situation:
The court determined that the company did not intentionally copy TiVo's technology, and EchoStar will continue to work on modifications to their PVRs to make sure they don't accidentally infringe on any patents in the future. But ordering EchoStar to stop selling PVRs within 30 days, and to shut down service to its customers' PVRS -- that's just a bit too much. Since there's still a month to go, they're telling customers not to worry, since they're "not immediately impacted."
Translation: Please don't switch services, we're hoping we can still provide you service next month.
Tivo's response:
"This decision recognizes that our intellectual property is valuable and will ensure that moving forward EchoStar will be unable to use our patented technology without our authorization." TiVo's press release also points out that besides the "Time Warp" patent that Echostar allegedly infringed on, TiVo holds 86 other patents.
Translation: If you want to use our technology, pay for it. And if we get to a point where people don't see value in owning a TiVo brand TiVo, at least we'll still collect licensing fees in the future.
We'll keep you posted on the latest details of EchoStar's appeal.
1. Never been more glad that I chose to go with Stand Alone TiVo's to go with my Dish Network service instead of the DishPVRs.
One would think that Echostar would simply sign a deal with TiVo to make this all go away but Charlie Ergen is a tad crazy so it's possible they may continue to fight.
Posted at 11:57AM on Aug 18th 2006 by Robert Aitchison