TiVo won a court order today that could cost Dish and Echostar $200 million in damages. From The Wall Street Journal:

Judge David Folsom, presiding in federal court in Texas, awarded TiVo $2.25 per DVR subscriber per month from April 18, 2008, through July 1, 2009, when the court most recently stayed the order holding EchoStar in contempt. The award will include $110 million in compensation based on the jury’s award and about $90 million in sanctions, as well as reimbursement of court costs.

TiVo had been asking for $1 billion in damages, a figure the judge said was unreasonable.

TiVo released the following statement:

We are pleased by the Court’s ruling to impose contempt sanctions of approximately $200 million against EchoStar for its continued violation of a Court-ordered permanent injunction, and to award TiVo its attorney fees and costs incurred during the contempt proceedings. This brings total damages and sanctions in this case to approximately $400 million through July 1, 2009, plus attorney fees, and is exclusive of potential further damages and sanctions.

Dish and Echostar released their own statement:

We are pleased that the district court rejected Tivo’s request to award a billion dollars in sanctions and that it found that any violation of the injunction was not willful. While we disagree that any amount of sanctions was warranted, the decision confirms our belief that we designed around Tivo’s patent in good faith. We believe that we ultimately will prevail on appeal.

This is far from the last time we’ll be writing about TiVo’s legal issues. In addition to this ongoing case, last month TiVo sued AT&T and Verizon for patent infringement as well.

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