TiVo-EchoStar Patent Case in Texas to Begin

In a case beginning this week, a Texas jury will be asked to decide whether satellite TV giant EchoStar Communications Corp. stole TiVo Inc.’s technology that lets viewers skip commercials.

TiVo claims that EchoStar, which operates the Dish satellite network, violated a TiVo patent on technology used to record one program while playing back another. TiVo is seeking unspecified damages.

The trial is scheduled to start Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Marshall, 150 miles east of Dallas, and last about two weeks.

If TiVo wins, it could sue cable companies that offer other set-top boxes or at least force them to pay licensing fees. Defeat would probably relegate TiVo to a niche in the market it created, analysts say.

TiVo produced a stand-alone digital video recorder, or DVR, in 1997 and changed the way Americans watch TV. It now has more than 4 million subscribers, but TiVo’s growth slowed as EchoStar and cable companies offered other DVRs, usually at lower prices.

EchoStar, the nation’s second-biggest satellite TV provider, produced its first DVR in 1999 and now offers free boxes to new customers.

In its suit, TiVo alleged that EchoStar’s set-top box violated TiVo’s patent for a “multimedia time warping system.” Lawyers familiar with patent cases say TiVo hopes for a verdict that would pay it millions -- equal to what EchoStar would have paid TiVo to license its technology the last five years.

EchoStar lawyers denied that the satellite company infringed the patent, and they said the patent was invalid anyway.