Digital Trends

A Texas jury has awarded DVR pioneer TiVo nearly $74 million in its patent infringement suit against satellite provider EchoStar.

TiVo's been fighting some hard times lately—and has never managed to earn any money in its nine years of operation—but sometimes Lady Luck smiles: a Texas jury has awarded the DVR company almost $74 million in its long-running patent dispute with satellite television provider EchoStar Communications. The jury found that EchoStar infringed on TiVo's DVR patent when it built its own digital video recorder; however, the jury did not have anything to say about issuing an injunction against EchoStar, which would prevent the company from selling the infringing devices.

In the suit, TiVo alleged EchoStar willfully and deliberately infringed on TiVo's patented Multimedia Time Warping System, which essentially is what enables TiVo users to fast-forward, rewind, and pause live television broadcasts.

In a statement, TiVo said it is "particularly gratified that the jury found that EchoStar willfully infringed on our patent and the consequences their actions had on our overall business. This decision recognizes that our intellectual property is valuable and will ensure that moving forward EchoStar and any others that want to use our patented technology will be required to provide us with compensation."

For its part, EchoStar says the jury's decision is just the first step in a long process, and the satellite operator believes it will prevail on appeal while continuing to question to validity of TiVo's patent.