TiVo Stock Skies on Latest Ruling

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) shares are up more than 50 percent today, as the company hinted to the world that it's got a $300 million windfall potentially coming in. Maybe.

That's TiVo's own estimate of what it will get out of damages and a contempt sanction against EchoStar Corp. LLC (Nasdaq: SATS). (See Court Affirms TiVo/EchoStar Ruling.) Today, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld that sanction, which had originally been handed down by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. in September.

TiVo had been hoping for a $1 billion sanction; the Texas court ordered Dish and EchoStar to pay $200 million. (See Court Awards $200M More to TiVo and TiVo Wants Ergen to Dish Out $1B .)

Of course, the press release doesn't exactly say TiVo has the money pocketed: "Additionally, this ruling paves the way for TiVo to receive the approximately $300M in damages and contempt sanctions awarded to us for EchoStar's continued infringement through July 1, 2009."

In a joint press release, EchoStar and its former parent company, Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH), noted that it was a split decision, and that they'll be asking the full Federal Circuit to review the case. In other words, this isn't over yet.

Dish and EchoStar also say they'll also submit a new design to the courts; Dish has done work on designing a system that doesn't violate the TiVo "Time Warping" patent. (See Dish Working on Another Work-Around .)

TiVo shares rose $5.36 (52.5%) to $15.57 in early afternoon trading.

Dish shares were down 95 cents (4.4%) at $20.76, while EchoStar was essentially unchanged at $19.83.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading