Yes, you read that right. TiVo has had a DVR (digital video recording) patent suit filed against them so Dish and Echostar (the parent company of Dish) can prove their new technology does not infringe on TiVo’s patents.

Previously, Echostar and TiVo had battled it out over TiVo’s time warp technology and their DVR patent was upheld. Echostar was found in to have indeed infringed on TiVo’s technology patent and TiVo walked away with damages in the amount of $70 million dollars. Winning this case was exactly what TiVo needed in order to claim to be one of the founders of existing DVR technology. Previously it was rumored that TiVo had lost large potential clients (e.g. Comcast) because confidence was lacking in the actual validity of TiVo’s claims.

Echostar/Dish Network had already been offering digital video recording - usually sold as “instant replay” to their customers and the loss of the suit would have affected the ability for this service to perform in millions of boxes that are already in the homes of their subscribers.

To avoid losing customers to services that could provide DVR, the company has been working on their own patent for “walk-around” technology that would be perform the same function without infringing on the technology that TiVo developed.

TiVo is skeptical and CEO Tom Rogers noted, “…based on what we’ve been provided by EchoStar to date, we believe that EchoStar’s modified software does not avoid infringement.”

Now, it’s up to a Delaware court to declare that their patent work around successfully skirts TiVo’s multimedia time-warping patent and in the meantime, rumor has it that TiVo will ask a federal judge to mandate Dish Networks shut down DVR functionality for continuing to infringe on TiVo’s patent in contempt of the earlier ruling—if the judge agrees.

Depending on how this suit plays out, it may change some of the services Dish can offer - wait and see!