But DISH and Echostar have appealed Tuesday's ruling and the verdict has been put on hold while the appeal process progresses. TiVo has until 10th June to respond to the stay on the payout and injunction.
TiVo and satellite firm Echostar are involved in a long-running legal dispute about whether or not Echostar's systems infringe on patents held by TiVo. TiVo won a $104 million settlement in 2006.
Echostar changed its software while that case was on appeal but TiVo claimed that it still infringed its rights. On Tuesday it won a further $103 million in damages and won a permanent injunction on Echostar and DISH's use of its modified technology.
Echostar became DISH, which then spun off its set top box and technology division to create EchoStar Communications.
The patent in question covers the technology used by TiVo to allow users of its systems to pause, rewind and record live television.
"We are pleased that the Federal Appeals Court in Washington temporarily stayed the district court's order in the TiVo litigation," DISH and EchoStar said in a statement, according to news agency Reuters. "DISH Network customers can continue using their DVRs. We believe we have strong grounds for appeal."
Intellectual property is vital to the success of TiVo. The technology's inventor, Mike Ramsay, told podcast OUT-LAW Radio in 2007 that the company's entire future rested not on the sales of set top boxes but on the licensing of its IP.
"From the beginning of the company we decided that the business model for the company is really a service business model and that selling hardware was not our game," he said. "We initiated a licensing business and we actually sold technology licences to consumer electronic companies, typically Japanese companies. We did a deal with Sony, with Pioneer, Toshiba, and a number of others. And I’d say that the trend very much is towards that integration of the hardware so that our business model becomes much more of a pure service business model."
