EchoStar Communications can keep making TiVo-like DVRs, an appeals court has ruled. The decision does not end the patent infringement case TiVo filed against Echostar; an appeals court must still decide the merits of the case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted the request of EchoStar to lift a permanent injunction imposed by a lower court to prevent EchoStar from making, using, offering for sale or selling in the United States the DVR subject to TiVo’s patent infringement claims.
TiVo said in a statement: “We are confident that the jury’s decision in TiVo’s favor will be upheld once the Federal Circuit has the opportunity to review the entire record in this case. It is important to note that most injunctions in patent cases are stayed pending appeal, and the appeal itself will be decided on a totally different standard of review.”
Separately, TiVo paid an undisclosed amount of cash to get a royalty-free patent cross-license with IBM. The agreement extends to all products other than digital media recorders and digital media recorder software, TiVo said.
“The license granted by IBM to us,” said TiVo in a reporting statement, “extends to all products other than general purpose data processing products and data storage devices that are primarily sold separately from other hardware.”