TiVo shares gained 25 per cent as the US Patent and Trademark Office upheld TiVo’s time-warp patent covering the company’s DVR technology. As reported, EchoStar had requested that the patent be re-examined in an effort to have an earlier patent infringement judgement against the company overturned.

TiVo officials said the company is extremely pleased the patent and trademark office found the claims within the time-warp patent to be valid after conducting the re-examination requested by EchoStar. TiVo said the decision “brings us another step closer to ending EchoStar’s continued infringement and we are hopeful that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will uphold the district court judgment of patent infringement and reinstate the injunction.”

TiVo also said the PTO decision is final and not appealable by EchoStar. However, the decision does not have any affect on the companies’ ongoing court battle.

Meanwhile, Nero, digital media technology specialists, and TiVo, have entered into an agreement to further enable the connected digital home by integrating TiVo’s television user experience with Nero’s next generation of PC software. Under the agreement, Nero will develop a software solution that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer, capitalising on the growing PC TV tuner market.

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