If you bought stock in TiVo yesterday, you are celebrating tonight.
The company’s shares were up 62 percent at 4:10 ET after word that it had won a legal battle against DISH Network and EchoStar over claims of patent infringement.
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling that found the companies were violating TiVo’s digital video recorder patent. DISH and EchoStar said they made enough changes, but the courts again disagreed.
The debate over DVR patents goes all the way back to 2004, when TiVo first accused DISH of stealing technology that first allowed viewers to record a show and play it back at the same time.
In a note today, analyst Tony Wibile of Janney Montgomery Scott predicted that this victory should give TiVo a real lift in similar battles with Verizon, AT&T and Microsoft.
So what does this mean for DISH customers who have the company’s DVR service? Nothing yet. Customers were allowed to continue using the service while DISH’s appeal was pending. That ruling remains in effect as the satellite provider asks the court to reconsider its decision.
TiVo could be in for a big windfall as a result of today’s decision. The DVR pioneer says it’s owed $300 million in damages and fines. DISH already paid TiVo $100 million after a previous ruling.
