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November 29, 2007
Time Warp
6,233,389,
owned by TiVo, claims a TV time warp: recording a program while playing back
another. Suing EchoStar for infringement, EchoStar pulled the reexamination
trigger. All that got was a bulletproof patent.
TiVo sued in January 2004 in the Eastern of District of Texas. EchoStar filed for reexam a few months before trial in 2006. The April 2006 jury trial found seven hardware and two software claims infringed. A few months later, Judge Folsom awarded $89 million and an injunction. EchoStar appealed, and got a stay of the injunction pending appeal decision.
In reexam, the hardware claims, which EchoStar hammered on, went down on an obviousness combo, but the software claims stood up.
The reexamination decision cannot be appealed. So EchoStar is left with whatever non-infringement cards it holds.
Posted by Patent Hawk at November 29, 2007 10:18 PM | Litigation