EchoStar Loses Ruling in TiVo Fight

A judge has handed EchoStar Communications Corp. another setback in its feud with TiVo Inc., delaying a countersuit against the digital video recording technology firm.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline M. Craven in Texarkana, Texas, blocked EchoStar’s patent-infringement lawsuit against TiVo while the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reviewed patents claimed by the owner of the Dish satellite TV network.

Craven, who issued the stay last month, made it final when EchoStar declined to appeal, a TiVo spokesman said Monday.

Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo sued EchoStar in 2004, and in April a jury found that EchoStar had infringed a TiVo patent in making its own set-top box. This month, the judge who presided over that trial ordered EchoStar to pay $89.6 million in damages -- more than the jury had awarded.

The trial judge, David Folsom, also ordered EchoStar to disable more than 3 million of its DVRs that jurors found used elements of TiVo technology, but a federal appeals court this month delayed Folsom’s order while the case was under appeal.