Judge Wipes Out Dish’s $469 Million Loss After DVR Patent Trial

A federal judge Tuesday tossed a nearly half a billion verdict against Dish Network LLC entered by a jury less than two weeks earlier.

Judge David Nuffer granted Dish’s motion seeking a judgment as a matter of law that was filed midway through trial.

ClearPlay had argued that Dish stole its patented technology for Dish’s Hopper DVR product, which was marketed as letting consumers “instantly skip commercials.”

At the end of the two-week trial in the US District Court for the District of Utah, jurors determined that Dish owed ClearPlay $469 million for infringing US Patent Nos. 7,577,970 and 6,898,799.

But Nuffer told the parties over Zoom that the Dish products targeted in the suit “do not practice the Asserted Claims of the 970 and 799 Patents and do not directly infringe the Asserted Claims.”

He further wrote that ClearPlay’s “claims for literal infringement, infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, induced infringement, and willful infringement fail as a matter of law.”

“DISH has stood firm in its belief that it did not infringe ClearPlay’s patents, and is gratified by the Court’s ruling,” a company spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Bloomberg Law.

Representatives for ClearPlay, based in Salt Lake City, weren’t immediately available to comment on the ruling.

Beus Gilbert McGroder PLLC; Ernst Brown & Draper PLLC; Foley & Lardner LLP; Kirton McConkie; and Ray Quinney & Nebeker PC represent ClearPlay.

Dish is represented by Baker Botts LLP and Hatch Law Group.

The case is ClearPlay, Inc. v. DISH Network LLC, D. Utah, No. 2:14-cv-191, motion for judgment as a matter of law granted 3/21/23.