As one battle appears coming to an end for E*hoStar, another legal struggle seems certain to remain in the courts for some time to come. The finalization of a court stay of E*hoStar’s patent infringement lawsuit against TiVo and Humax USA all but ensured a lengthy litigation process and invoked comments from the disputing companies.
Following U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven’s previous stay order, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will reexamine the proceedings of certain E*hoStar patents - as requested by TiVo - before the case will proceed.

“The reexamination requests TiVo submitted detail how a large number of art references that the USPTO did not previously consider raise substantial new questions regarding the validity” of E*hoStar’s claims, TiVo said in a statement. “TiVo will continue to defend its technology vigorously and will not be intimidated by claims E*hoStar asserted in response to TiVo’s successful suit against E*hoStar.”

In response, E*hoStar’s Director of Corporate Communications Kathie Gonzalez told SkyREPORT, “We are anxious to get to trial because we believe Tivo’s DVRs infringe on our technology. We’re confident the patent office will confirm the validity of our patents.”

In April a jury found E*hoStar willfully infringed TiVo’s time warping patent in the company’s suit against the DISH Network operator, and TiVo said it will continue to pursue its rights in the case.

“As we’ve said before, this is the beginning of a very long process and we are confident we will ultimately prevail,” Gonzalez said.