TiVo Soars After $103M Court Victory Over Dish

NEW YORK (AP) — TiVo Inc. shares skyrocketed Wednesday after a federal court ordered rival Dish Network Corp. to pay the company $103 million plus interest for violating TiVo's patent by using a modified digital video recorder technology.

TiVo shares soared $3.47, or 49.7 percent, to $10.45.

The court decision, announced Tuesday, determined that Dish violated TiVo's DVR Time Warp technology patent, which lets viewers pause, rewind and fast-forward live TV shows.

Dish lost a patent infringement case filed by TiVo in 2004, and modified its software while the case was on appeal. But TiVo said Dish's software still infringed on its patent and asked for a permanent injunction by the court, which was granted.

Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible called the court decision "a major victory" for TiVo in a client note, and raised his price target to $13.50 from $9.75.

The analyst, who rates TiVo shares "Buy," said the ruling should reiterate the value of TiVo's intellectual property and make it harder for cable companies to get around its patent by offering customers generic services.