Dish wins stay in TiVo patent fight

Dish Network satellite TV customers can keep using their digital video recorders while a court battle continues with TiVo Inc.

That's the word today from both companies.

TiVo accuses Dish of infringing on its DVR patent. But a federal appeals court on Wednesday granted Dish Network and EchoStara stay on a contempt order that would have forced them to disable Dish DVRs.

A judge in the federal court in Marshall, Texas, last month found Dish and EchoStar to be in contempt of his permanent injunction on TiVo's DVR Time Warp technology. That technology lets viewers pause, rewind and fast-forward live shows.

Dish had lost a 2004 patent infringement case brought by TiVo, and while the case was on appeal it sent modified software to customers' DVRs. But TiVo said the workaround software still infringed on its patent and asked the court for the injunction.