Dish Network 2014 Annual Report Download - page 158

DISH NETWORK CORPORATION
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - Continued
F-52
California Institute of Technology
On October 1, 2013, the California Institute of Technology (“Caltech”) filed complaints against us and our
wholly-owned subsidiaries DISH Network L.L.C. and dishNET Satellite Broadband L.L.C., as well as Hughes
Communications, Inc. and Hughes Network Systems, LLC, which are wholly-owned subsidiaries of EchoStar, in
the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint alleges infringement of
United States Patent Nos. 7,116,710; 7,421,032; 7,916,781 and 8,284,833, each of which is entitled “Serial
Concatenation of Interleaved Convolutional Codes forming Turbo-Like Codes.” Caltech alleges that encoding
data as specified by the DVB-S2 standard infringes each of the asserted patents. In the operative Amended
Complaint, served on March 6, 2014, Caltech claims that our Hopper set-top box, as well as the Hughes
defendants’ satellite broadband products and services, infringe the asserted patents by implementing the DVB-S2
standard. On February 17, 2015, Caltech filed a new complaint in the United States District Court for the Central
District of California, asserting the same patents against the same defendants. Caltech alleges that certain
broadband equipment, including without limitation the HT1000 and HT1100 modems, gateway hardware,
software and/or firmware that the Hughes defendants provide to, among others, us for our use in connection with
the dishNET branded broadband service, infringes these patents. Trial is scheduled to commence on April 20,
2015.
We intend to vigorously defend this case. In the event that a court ultimately determines that we infringe the
asserted patents, we may be subject to substantial damages, which may include treble damages, and/or an injunction
that could require us to materially modify certain features that we currently offer to consumers. We cannot predict
with any degree of certainty the outcome of the suit or determine the extent of any potential liability or damages.
ClearPlay, Inc.
On March 13, 2014, ClearPlay, Inc. (“ClearPlay”) filed a complaint against us, our wholly-owned subsidiary
DISH Network L.L.C., EchoStar, and its wholly-owned subsidiary EchoStar Technologies L.L.C., in the United
States District Court for the District of Utah. The complaint alleges infringement of United States Patent Nos.
6,898,799, entitled “Multimedia Content Navigation and Playback”; 7,526,784, entitled “Delivery of Navigation
Data for Playback of Audio and Video Content”; 7,543,318, entitled “Delivery of Navigation Data for Playback of
Audio and Video Content”; 7,577,970, entitled “Multimedia Content Navigation and Playback”; and 8,117,282,
entitled “Media Player Configured to Receive Playback Filters From Alternative Storage Mediums”. ClearPlay
alleges that the AutoHop™ feature of our Hopper set-top box infringes the asserted patents. On February 11,
2015, the case was stayed pending various third-party challenges before the United States Patent and Trademark
Office regarding the validity of certain of the patents asserted in the action.
We intend to vigorously defend this case. In the event that a court ultimately determines that we infringe the
asserted patents, we may be subject to substantial damages, which may include treble damages, and/or an
injunction that could require us to materially modify certain features that we currently offer to consumers. We
cannot predict with any degree of certainty the outcome of the suit or determine the extent of any potential liability
or damages.
CRFD Research, Inc. (a subsidiary of Marathon Patent Group, Inc.)
On January 17, 2014, CRFD Research, Inc. (“CRFD”) filed a complaint against us, our wholly-owned subsidiaries
DISH DBS and DISH Network L.L.C., EchoStar, and its wholly-owned subsidiary EchoStar Technologies L.L.C.,
in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging infringement of United States Patent No.
7,191,233 (the “233 patent”). The 233 patent is entitled “System for Automated, Mid-Session, User-Directed,
Device-to-Device Session Transfer System,” and relates to transferring an ongoing software session from one
device to another. CRFD alleges that our Hopper and Joey set-top boxes infringe the 233 patent. On the same day,
CRFD filed similar complaints against AT&T Inc.; Comcast Corp.; DirecTV; Time Warner Cable Inc.; Cox