Dish ordered to pay TiVo $103 mln plus interest

A federal court Tuesday ordered Dish Network Corp. to pay TiVo Inc. $103 million plus interest in damages for using a modified digital video recorder technology that it found to be in violation of TiVo’s patent.

U.S. District Judge David Folsom, of the Eastern District of Texas, found Dish, formerly EchoStar, to be in contempt of a permanent injunction on TiVo’s DVR Time Warp technology, which lets viewers pause, rewind and fast-forward live shows.

Dish had lost a 2004 patent infringement case brought by TiVo, and while the case was on appeal it designed modified software that it uploaded to customers’ DVRs.

But TiVo said the work-around software still infringed on its patent and asked the court for a permanent injunction. Folsom agreed with TiVo and awarded it damages.

Shares of TiVo rose as much as $2.55, or 37%, to $9.53 in after-hours trading. Dish fell as much as $1.19, or 6.9%, to $16.05 after hours.

Dish said in a statement that it intended to appeal the decision. The satellite TV provider spun off EchoStar Corp., which sells set-top boxes and provides satellite television services, in January.