June 8, 2010—Last Tuesday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected TiVo Inc.'s (TIVO) patent-infringement claims on its time warp technology against Dish Network Corp’s DVR. 

USPTO rules that two aspects of the technology they were reviewing were variations of an earlier invention rendering the software claims of TIVO invalid.  These were the same infringement patent claim that was decided by a jury against Dish in 2006.

Dish Network and EchoStar are now jointly pleased that the agency had concluded that the software claims of TIVO were “unpatentable”.  TIVO still has two months to respond to the agency’s decision and appeal to one of its board.  If this action fails, TIVO can appeal to the Federal Circuit.

The patent review is a parallel proceeding with TIVO’s legal case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  After the ruling against Dish, the appeals court said last month that it will review whether Dish Network and EchoStar continue to infringe TIVO’s patent. 

Analysts say however, that the PTO process usually works more slowly that the court process; so it would be difficult for the patent review to be finished in time before the court appeals rules on the contempt case. 

The infringement case between the two started in 2004 when TIVO filed a lawsuit against EchoStar and Dish Network.  The DVR in question forms an integral part in most of Dish Networks satellite TV deals.  The same patent also is the subject of lawsuits TIVO filed against AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. and in a dispute against Microsoft Corp.