TiVo (TIVO) shares are down sharply today, apparently on new concerns about the outcome of its ongoing patent infringement litigation against DISH Network (DISH).
On Friday, according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Todd Mitchell, TiVo and Dish met for a status conference with the judge presiding over TiVo’s patent infringement case against Dish over digital video recorder technology. Kaufman says TiVo asked the judge to enforce its injunction against Dish, and to declare the workaround Dish devised to be invalid. TiVo also asked for further discovery for enhanced damages. Dish asserted that its workaround renders the TiVo claims moot.
In response, Mitchell reports, the judge pushed out enforcement of the injunction against further violations of the patent until a hearing on September 4, and told TiVo he could not evaluate the workaround until the injunction had been evaluated. The result, Mitchell says, is that the judge “effectively put TiVo’s claims for enhanced damages on hold.”
Meanwhile, Dish filed a new suit against TiVo in Delaware asking for a declaratory judgment that its workaround is valid. The result, Mitchell, says, will be to prolong the timeframe for eventual resolution of the issue and to add uncertainty to the situation for TiVo.
TiVo today is down 75 cents, or 8.9%, to $7.66. DISH is down 36 cents, or 1%, at $34.75.
