TiVo awarded $200 million in battle against EchoStar, which vows to hit replay

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The long-running feud between TiVo and EchoStar’s Dish Network took another twist today with a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Texas telling the satellite broadcaster to cough up almost $200 million to TiVo for using the digital video recorder’s technology and violating its patent.

Both sides, of course, are claiming victory. TiVo said it was pleased with the ruling while EchoStar took solace in U.S. District Judge David Folsom’s rejection of TiVo’s request for a reward of almost $1 billion. EchoStar said it would appeal the ruling. For the skinny and nitty gritty, go to Bloomberg.

All totaled, EchoStar’s Dish has been asked to pay TiVo $400 million so far. Earlier this year, Folsom told Echostar to pay $192.7 million for violating the patent up to April 2008. The latest award is for violations of the patent since then.

Sounds like the only ones on the EchoStar side who can really claim victory are their lawyers who will rake up more billable hours working on the appeal.

-- Joe Flint