EveryJoe » patent infringement

Dish Network to Pay TiVo $200M

Mark Ellis — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:26:02 +0000

TiVo has long suffered from competitors using the television pause and rewind technology for which TiVo became famous. Now, though, the struggling DVR maker has managed to convince a federal judge that Dish Network and its sister firm, EchoStar, have violated an injunction against copying the technology, forcing the latter two companies to pay a total of $200 million to TiVo.

While Dish Network plans to appeal the case, it will be forced to pay the $110 million in damages, $90 million in sanctions, and additional attorney fees, as well as additional sanctions if it loses its appeal. This ruling comes after Dish Network’s 2004 loss to TiVo in a patent infringement case, a ruling that prompted Dish Network to begin selling modified software to its customers.

Even though it won the case, TiVo had been hoping for $1 billion in settlements for Dish Network’s use of the technology from April 2008 to July 2009. According to Dish Network, the violation of the injunction had been done in good faith, and that Dish Network never meant to cause any harm to TiVo. The company remains confident about its chances at appellate court.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Dish Network to Pay TiVo $200M

IBM Sued Over Patent Infringements

Mark Ellis — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:47:23 +0000

Canadian company MOSAID Technologies has filed a lawsuit against International Business Machines Corp., otherwise known as IBM, for six alleged patent infringements. According to MOSAID, it has tried for years to reach some sort of settlement with IBM but has been unable to agree with the technology giant in negotiations.

The lawsuit focuses on IBM’s producing and selling certain products that use technology patented by MOSAID without ever having acquired a license to their patents. The technology involves microprocessors and Application-Specific Integrated Circuits that IBM would otherwise certainly be able to use if it had pursued a license.

MOSAID President and CEO John Lindgren maintains that his company deals with almost all of the Dynamic Random Access Memory commodities in the world, which means that IBM would have had to correspond with MOSAID at some point. IBM has not yet released any comment on the matter, but MOSAID and Howrey LLP, a specialized U.S. law firm, will go forward with the lawsuit.

Image: Flickr

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IBM Sued Over Patent Infringements

RJ Reynolds Victorious in Patent Case

Mark Ellis — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:22:16 +0000

Expect sour grapes from Star Scientific Inc. in the coming days, as the tobacco company just emerged as the loser in a huge lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Although Star Scientific Claimed that R.J. Reynolds infringed on its patents, a Baltimore jury found that R.J. Reynolds had done no such thing.

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This means that R.J. Reynolds will not be have to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars that Star Scientific sought in damages for the perceived infringement of R.J. Reynolds upon a new tobacco curing method that removes more cancer-causing chemicals. It also means that Star Scientific will also have to head into recovery mode, as the verdict caused its stocks to tumble 80 percent.

According to RJR at trial, the tobacco giant invented its own method of accomplishing the same exact thing as Star and that it did not need to copy the plans. RJR also questioned Star’s attitude throughout the trial, deriding its tendency to play the victim and the benefactor.

Post from: EveryJoe

RJ Reynolds Victorious in Patent Case