Appeals court denies EchoStar rehearing request

NEW YORK (Reuters) - TiVo Inc (TIVO.O) on Friday said a federal appeals court has denied EchoStar's (DISH.O) request to have a panel of judges rehear arguments related to their long standing patent dispute.

TiVo, the maker of television recording technology, said the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington to deny EchoStar's request for a "rehearing en banc" brings their patent fight closer to a resolution.

In January, the court upheld a lower court's damage award of $74 million plus interest, saying that EchoStar infringed a TiVo patent in building digital video recorders. With interest, the damages would be $94 million.

An EchoStar spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

That lower court had ruled that EchoStar's digital video recorders infringed what it called the "software" claims of a TiVo patent. But the appeals court reversed a portion of the lower court's decision that said the EchoStar devices also infringed on what it called "hardware" claims.

EchoStar has said it has developed and deployed 'next-generation' DVR software that does not infringe the TiVo patent at issue.

Shares of TiVo rose 8 cents, or about 1 percent, to $8.86 in afternoon trade on Friday. EchoStar shares fell 3.5 percent to $30.53 on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Franklin Paul)