The court said contempt sanctions equal to a rate of $2.25 per DVR subscriber per month were appropriate. This brings total damages and sanctions in this case to approximately $400m through July 1, 2009, plus attorney fees, and is exclusive of potential further damages and sanctions.

TiVo had originally asked the court to impose costs of nearly $1 billion on Dish and EchoStar, but the judge ruled that was unreasonable. In July, Dish and EchoStar won a stay from a federal circuit judge against an earlier ruling that found Dish's efforts to bypass digital video recording service provider TiVo's patents were inadequate.

The companies have been involved in the litigation since 2006 over technology that allows consumers to pause, rewind, and record live television. In 2006, the US District Court of Texas found Dish to have infringed TiVo's DVR patent and granted $105m damages. A federal court awarded TiVo $103m damages in addition to the $105m, stating Dish and EchoStar continued to infringe TiVo's patent.

Last month TiVo filed similar patent infringement suits against AT&T and Verizon Communications for violating three of its patents.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.