WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is refusing to disturb a $74 million judgment against Dish Network Corp. for violating a patent held by TiVo involving digital video recorders.

The justices denied Englewood, Colo.-based Dish's appeal Monday without comment.

In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed with a lower court that DVRs distributed by Dish, formerly known as EchoStar Communications Corp., violated the software elements of the patent held by Tivo, Inc., based in Alviso,Calif. The ruling overturned the lower court's finding that Dish also infringed on the patent's hardware elements.