U.S. patent court rules for TiVo, against EchoStar

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - EchoStar Communications Corp infringed a TiVo Inc patent in building digital video recorders and must pay nearly $74 million in damages, a court that specializes in patent cases ruled on Thursday.

Once the appeal is final, EchoStar will be barred from selling the infringing devices, the ruling said. EchoStar said it already had a substitute for the software in question, and its customers would be unaffected.

TiVo's stock soared more than 30 percent to $8.92, and EchoStar's shares rose just under 1 percent to $28.58 in late trade on the Nasdaq.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the lower court's damage award of $73,991,964. With interest, the damages would be $94 million, EchoStar said.

"We're very pleased by the ruling today and we feel like our efforts have been vindicated," TiVo General Counsel Matthew Zinn told Reuters.

EchoStar said it would appeal the damage award, and sought to reassure customers that they had a substitute for the infringing software.

"This improved software is fully operational, has been automatically downloaded to current customers, and does not infringe the TiVo patent at issue in the Federal Circuit's ruling," EchoStar said in a statement.

TiVo was skeptical of the claim of a substitute.

"EchoStar has made a series of statements over the years related to the infringement of the TiVo patent that has turned out to be both false and misleading," said a TiVo spokesman.