Court Says Dish Users Can Still TiVo DVR Shows

Dish Network subscribers will still be able to use their DVRs (for now) after a federal appeals court yesterday granted a stay of a lower court injunction against the service.

After losing its patent infringement case against TiVo, Dish (formerly known as EchoStar) developed a DVR workaround, but last month a Texas court ruled that this workaround still violated TiVo’s intellectual property. Dish was found in contempt, was ordered to pay TiVo an additional $103 million, and told to disable roughly 4 million DVR receivers on its network within 30 days. Dish was given a temporary stay of that order immediately following the decision.

That temporary stay will last a little longer as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Dish was able to “demonstrate that it has a substantial case on the merits.”

The case is being expedited, and Dish will now file its opening brief by July 17; TiVo’s brief will come August 25; and Dish’s reply is due September 4.