Back tracking to over four years ago, TiVo took EchoStar to court over their DVR hardware. They sued them over patent violations, and began a very long legal battle. Years later, in late 2007, the courts ruled in favor of TiVo and claimed that their patent is valid, which was bad news for EchoStar.

But today the two companies are still at it. Dish Network (EchoStar) has appealed the ruling and tried to have the case thrown out, but once again the courts are favoring TiVo. This has the potential of becoming a huge setback for both Dish Network and its customers, who may find their DVR equipment recalled, or even worse, non-functional on the network. It could also end up benefiting the customers alone, should Dish decide to replace existing customers' DVRs with newer ones.