The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s recent decision to rehear TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Corp. en banc may help EchoStar battle a hefty sanctions fine, but other intellectual property lawyers are awaiting the ruling’s take on thorny patent law questions.
The Federal Circuit’s May 14 order to rehear the case en banc vacates its March 4 ruling. The earlier ruling ordered EchoStar to pay TiVo $2.25 per DVR subscriber per month — $1.25 for continued infringement and $1 for sanctions — for a contempt period dating from April 18, 2008, through July 1, 2009. Chief Judge David Folsom of the Eastern District of Texas, the trial judge, had estimated that continued infringement payment would total about $110 million and the sanctions payment would add up to about $90 million for the contempt period.
