TiVo Shares Fast-Forward After Patent Case Ruling

A major victory Thursday for TiVo, Inc. (TIVO) as a federal appeals court affirmed a district court's earlier finding of contempt in a years-long patent infringement case against EchoStar Corp. (SATS) and its sister company, Dish Network Corp. (DISH).

TiVo, which supplies hardware, software and services for digital video recording, originally filed suit in 2004, claiming that Dish was using similar storage and retrieval technology.

In a statement on its website, TiVo said the ruling "paves the way for TiVo to receive the approximately $300 million in damages and contempt sanctions awarded to us for EchoStar's continued infringement through July 1 2009. We will also seek further damages and contempt sanctions for the period of continued infringement thereafter. We will continue our efforts to protect our intellectual property from further infringement."

For its part, EchoStar said it was "disappointed" in the 2-1 decision against it by the federal judges, and would seek a full-court review. It also said EchoStar's DVR customers were not, "at this time," impacted by the ruling.

Shares of TiVo soared on news of the ruling and ended the day up nearly 62% on NASDAQ trading.