TiVo Wins Major Court Victory Over EchoStar; Japanese Blu-ray players To Be Region-Code Free. By Shane C. Buettner August 20, 2006 — EchoStar Infringed On TiVo's Patents, Court Rules
EchoStar, which operates DISH Network's satellite TV service, was ruled by a federal district in Texas to have infringed on several patents held by TiVo, and ordered to halt the use of the bulk of the DVRs its subscribers use. A subsequent injunction blocked the order, which would have affected millions of EchoStar's subscribers.

A Texas jury had decided in April that EchoStar had violated the patents held by TiVo, but it wasn't until this week that the court issued a permanent injunction ordering preventing EchoStar from manufacturing, selling or allowing the use of the DVRs in question. The injunction was to have taken effect within 30 days, but was blocked by a federal appeals court in Washington waiting to decide whether to the injunction should remain in place until EchoStar's appeal is heard. The NY Times estimated that more than 3 million of EchoStar's 12 million subscribers use the DVRs, raising the spectre of mass defections.

In addition, EchoStar has already been ordered to pay TiVo $90 million in damages and interest. The NY Times speculates that the injunction being blocked may allow time for the two companies to reach a licensing agreement.

Hollywood Movies Could Appear On Blu-ray Before Reaching Theaters in Japan
The face of movie distribution continues to change. According to Sony, the US and Japan will be included in the same region so far as Blu-ray Disc players and movies are concerned. This is in stark contrast to the current DVD format, which keeps the two regions incompatible in order to protect theatrical release windows overseas. Under the new system it's possible that movies will hit stores in Japan on Blu-ray Disc before being released in movie theaters.

Supporters of the new model claim that the current region coding system isn't effective anyway since multi-region players that play discs from all regions are so easy to come by.

Word is that the HD DVD group is waiting to see the final region coding scheme adopted by the Blu-ray Disc Association and is likely to adopt the same system in order to avoid further confusion among consumers. Yeah, we wouldn't want to confuse consumers would we? Excuse me, I have to get out to pre-order my copy of Mission: Impossible 3 on Blu-ray, DVD and HD DVD.