EchoStar says settlement unlikely in TiVo suit

[Chris Blount]

LAS VEGAS - EchoStar Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: DISH - news) chief executive Charles Ergen on Thursday said he expects no settlement in its legal battle with TiVo TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq:TIVO - news) and expects the suit to proceed to the courts.

TiVo and EchoStar, the No. 2 U.S. satellite television service, sued each other, each claiming the other infringed patents related to Digital Video Recorders, television set-top boxes that allow users to save programs to a built-in computer hard drive.

More (http://www.localnewsleader.com/elytimes/stories/news-00121108.html)

[kb7oeb]

Maybe this is why the $1 dvr fee increase, they need to pay lawyer fees :D

[the_bear]

Patents are not valid if the technology being patented is “obvious”. Estimated cost to determine of recording a digital stream onto a hard drive is “obvious” - $8 million.