Defendant
2 cases as defendant.
Company overview. DISH Network Corp. is an American satellite-television and wireless services provider headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. The business traces to Charlie Ergen's EchoStar, founded in 1980; the DISH pay-TV brand launched in 1996. DISH was a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: DISH) until it was recombined into EchoStar Corporation in a deal completed in late 2023/January 2024; it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar. Public sources put revenue in the roughly $14–16 billion range in recent years (about $14.3 billion for 2024 per Tracxn/csimarket data) with roughly 14,200 employees.
Products / services / operations. DISH is an operating company whose major lines include the DISH direct-broadcast satellite pay-TV service, the Sling TV over-the-top streaming service, and the DISH Wireless unit — prepaid and postpaid mobile service sold under the Boost Mobile, Boost Infinite, and Ting Mobile brands, plus a build-out of its own 5G network. It also sells its Hopper DVR/set-top hardware. In June 2026, subsidiary Dish DBS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid heavy debt, after EchoStar's proposed sale of DISH to DirecTV was terminated in November 2024.
Patent-litigation posture. DISH is an operating company defending against NPE litigation. In the tracked database it appears once, exclusively as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases), in a suit filed in the Eastern District of Texas — a venue known for patent-plaintiff filings.
Notable case. The tracked matter is Headwater Research LLC v. DISH Network Corp. et al. (E.D. Tex., Aug. 2025; lead case 2:25-cv-00920, consolidated with related actions). EchoStar's own SEC filings describe Headwater as "an entity that seeks to license a patent portfolio without itself practicing" the claims — i.e., a non-practicing entity. Headwater asserted patents covering eSIM management, mobile data-traffic management, wireless data offload, and related device-assisted services against DISH and affiliated entities (DISH Network LLC, DISH Wireless/Boost Mobile, Sling TV), and filed parallel suits against Apple, Google, Samsung, Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and others. The cases were stayed following DISH's Chapter 11 filing.
Headwater sued DISH entities asserting a seven-patent set including the '464 patent; EchoStar's Form 10-Q stated it intended to vigorously defend and disclosed potential damages exposure.
Customedia appealed the PTAB's CBM2017-00019 final written decision invalidating claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,840,437. The Federal Circuit summarily affirmed and later denied rehearing.