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TiVo v. EchoStar

BY R. David Donoghue
June 29, 2011

On April 20, 2011, the Federal Circuit issued its opinion in the TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Corp. case. No. 2009-1374 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 20, 2011). The decision marks a sea change for evaluating contempt of an injunction in a patent case, significantly limiting an infringer's ability to challenge an injunction on the grounds that it is vague or overbroad.

In the district court, a jury found that EchoStar Corporation (“EchoStar”) had willfully infringed TiVo Inc.'s (“TiVo”) patent. The district court then issued a permanent injunction against EchoStar with two provisions: 1) an infringement provision prohibiting EchoStar from making, using, offering to sell, and selling the models that were found to have infringed TiVo's patent, and 2) a disablement provision requiring EchoStar to disable Digital Video Recording (“DVR”) functionality in satellite television receivers already being used by EchoStar customers and in products that had not yet shipped to customers.

EchoStar initially appealed the jury's verdict on certain issues regarding claim construction and infringement, but not on the injunction. The injunction was stayed during the course of the appeal. EchoStar modified the infringing products and then marketed the same.

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