ACT Applauds Court Decision in Favor of TiVo

The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) applauded today’s Federal Circuit Court decision in Tivo v. Echostar.  ACT filed a brief in the case in support of TiVo against Echostar’s infringement of its intellectual property and its repeated contempt violations for refusing to disable infringing devices.

“Today’s decision by the Federal Circuit has finally brought an end to Echostar’s strategy of infringe first and ignore the courts later,” said ACT Executive Director Morgan Reed.  “After repeatedly being found in contempt for failing to halt its infringement of TiVo’s DVR technology, Echostar now faces substantial penalties and damages, and the enforcement of a permanent injunction requiring its infringing DVRs be disabled.

“This important decision vindicates the substance of Tivo’s claims that Echostar acted with contempt for both Tivo’s federal patent rights and the federal court proceedings Tivo was forced to file to enforce them. The Federal Circuit’s clarification of its own prior standard for assessing contempt in patent infringement cases will require some further proceedings on remand to the district court. Nevertheless, the seriousness of the rulings affirmed by the Federal Circuit should require swift and expedited action on remand to ensure that Echostar finally ceases to benefit from its long strategy of infringement, delay and contempt.

“TiVo’s victory in this case is important for startups and small and medium-sized businesses that take risks to create innovative new products and marketplaces.  The protection of intellectual property is essential for startups to invest in innovation and today’s decision reaffirms that.”