The US wireless carrier AT&T has reportedly settled a patent infringement lawsuit filed against it by the digital video recorder giant TiVo for a total of $215 million.
The case came about after TiVo filed lawsuits against two other companies – EchoStar and Dish Network – over a patent relating to time warp technology.
The suit against AT&T was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas back in August 2009, with TiVo claiming that the company breached three of its patents relating to the way the user stores programs at the same time as viewing or reviewing others.
AT&T has now agreed to settle the case for a total of $215 million in damages, which the company will have to pay using its professional indemnity insurance, if it has any. TiVo has said that initially, AT&T will make a payment of $51 million, followed by quarterly payments until June 2018.
In exchange for all litigation to be dropped and for a cross licensing deal to be set up between the two companies, AT&T must also agree to pay an additional license fee every month if its DVR user base grows beyond a certain size.