EchoStar Corp. expected to Report Q1 2010 Results on May 10, 2010. This event was calculated by Capital IQ (Created on March 16, 2010).

EchoStar's software changes to its DVR-equipped satellite receivers didn't make them 'colorably different' from models that a federal jury found infringed a TiVo patent, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit ruled in upholding a lower court contempt order. The company said that in a split decision, the appeals court said U.S. District Judge Charles Folsom was correct in ruling that EchoStar's satellite receivers/DVRs continued to infringe TiVo's time-warp patent despite modifications made to its indexing software. Last June, Folsom ordered EchoStar to pay TiVo $103 million plus interest and found the company in contempt of his 2006 injunction that barred it from continuing to sell infringing satellite receivers. EchoStar will ask the full federal circuit to review the decision. In upholding the contempt ruling, the appeals court rejected EchoStar's argument that a contempt hearing was only needed when redesigned devices continued to infringe. While EchoStar maintained that a new trial was needed to determine whether the changes it made continued to infringe, the appeals court argued that 'would make it impossible for a district court to employ a contempt proceeding to enjoin infringing products,' wrote appeals court judges Alan Lourie and Haldane Mayer. Modifications that EchoStar made to its software based on what it alone considered to be the basis of the jury's infringement finding cannot guarantee the creation of substantial open issues with respect to infringement,' the court said. EchoStar claimed 15 engineers spent 8,000 man-hours and $700 million on DVR software designed to work around TiVo's patent. The appeals court finding 'paves the way' for TiVo to get $300 million in damages and contempt sanctions that were awarded for infringement through July 1, 2009, TiVo said. TiVo will seek further damages for the period after July. While EchoStar eliminated a record buffer and altered start code indexing, the modified and original products continued to use a circular transport structure with 10 buffers, the appeals court said. The changes didn't represent a 'major redesign of the software,' the appeals court said. EchoStar did not significantly change the manner in which the data flows to the transport buffers, simply the manner in which it was written to the hard disc. The appeals court said that while EchoStar did alter the way automatic flow control was achieved, a new issue doesn't bar a district court from having a contempt hearing on continued infringement. In a dissenting opinion, Appeals Court Judge Randall Radner argued that the former infringement proceedings were different from the issues before the appeals court. The modified software operated 'significantly differently' from the previous version. 'Indeed the only thing that is not different is the identity of the parties themselves'. These differences deserve a trial, not a summary contempt proceeding.

EchoStar Corp. expected to Report Fiscal Year 2010 Results on March 2, 2011. This event was calculated by Capital IQ (Created on March 1, 2010).

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