TiVo shares had been trading close to $9.50 but the stock is now up11% at $10.21 and the pop after the news release did have an intraday high of $11.20.

At 2:44 PM EST we have now seen 6.2 million shares trade hands versus an average of about 2.2 million shares per day and the 52-week range is $6.92 to $18.93.

Keep in mind that this is still a step in the patent war process rather than a final-final resolution where money matters come to play.

TiVo commented, “We are pleased that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has reaffirmed the validity of all claims of the Time Warp Patent at issue in the second reexamination of the patent at the request of EchoStar. This decision by the PTO is final and not appealable by EchoStar. Today’s decision further validates our IP and brings us closer to ending EchoStar’s ongoing infringement. Moreover, we remain confident that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will uphold and enforce an injunction against EchoStar’s ongoing willful infringement of the Time Warp Patent.”

JON C. OGG

TiVo shares in the minute before the closing bell are trading down 5.5% at $7.70 on over 10 million shares right at the 4PM Closing Bell, which is mostly from the headline effect of the last five or six minutes.  DISH shares closed up unofficially by 0.25% at $19.97 and SATS shares closed up unofficially by 1.1% at $20.50.  It seems that almost all hope for TiVo had eswcaped based on its poor performance and shares hitting a new 52-week low today.

TiVo offered the following statement on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) decision.

“While TiVo is disappointed with this recent PTO office action, this is just one of several steps in the review process. We will continue to work with the PTO to explain the validity of the claims under review. It is important to note that TiVo received a “final action” holding several claims invalid during EchoStar’s first reexamination request at this juncture only to have the PTO ultimately uphold the validity of all claims of the patent.

Moreover, the PTO proceeding is separate and apart from the ongoing litigation against EchoStar and does not impact the current United States Court of Appeals en banc review of the district court’s finding of contempt against EchoStar and the related injunction.”

DISH Network L.L.C., a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq:DISH – News), and EchoStar Technologies L.L.C., a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS) made the following statements:

“We are pleased the Patent and Trademark Office issued a Final Office Action maintaining its rejection of the software claims of TiVo’s patent. These software claims are the same claims that EchoStar was found to have infringed in the contempt ruling now pending for en banc review by the Federal Circuit. In the Final Office Action, three examiners of the PTO considered TiVo’s response and, in a detailed 32-page decision, finally concluded that the software claims were unpatentable in view of two prior art references.”

JON C. OGG

Shares went from roughly $18.00 down over 41% to close at $10.16 Friday on more than 57 million shares.  This takes TIVO stock almost right where it was before its huge pop-up on winning the patent case in the first place.

As you can see on the chart here from StockCharts.com, you can forget about the key 50-day and 200-day moving averages offering much of anything.  If there is any takeaway in the moving averages, it is only that the 200-day at $11.97 (which will change each day) matters for resistance.  The 50-day average did not even have 50 sessions at the higher prices, explaining why the line goes straight up.

If you go back a year, it is $11.00 that had been the big pivot point and the hard line of resistance back before it won the patent case the first time around.  Above that was a resistance of $12.00, which coincides with the 200-day average right now.  That 200-day average will likely come down over a nickel a day this week and will then start to bleed off closer to 3 cents a day for another week or so.

As far as support, $10.00 had been a longer-term pivot level for support before its significant pop-up earlier this year.  Then there is a lower level of $8.60 to $9.05, which would be a harder support level than $10.00.  So, on downdrafts, S1- $10.00; S2 $9.05; S3- $8.65…

As far as RSI, stochastics, and MACD ar e concerned, you can probably throw those out the window for at least the next two weeks while this stock finds its own trading range.

As far as stock options, we almost always like to see just what the real volatility traders are pricing in for straddles.  It is almost always too expensive to buy both the PUT and CALL at the closest strike price, but we are looking at the $10 straddle for both MAY. The MAY $10 strike was $0.75 for the CALL and appears to be $0.57 for the PUTS.  With $0.16 of intrinsic value, TiVo stock still would have to rise above $11.32 or go down under $8.68 in the next week for the volatility to trade in MAY to make money.

As far as analyst calls yesterday, Lazard did cut the stock to HOLD from BUY.

An appeals court did set aside TiOo’s previous win against Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) and EchoStar Corp. (NASDAQ: SATS) in the patent case for digital video recorders.  It looks as though the federal circuit court for the U.S. Court of Appeals will review its own March decision.  Dish and EchoStar had changed the DVR technology to avoid infringing on the patents, but the court had ruled that the devices still used TiVo’s technology.  $300 million or more in past damage awards hangs in the balance.

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JON C. OGG

American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC) is up almost 4% at $29.95 on thin volume after it reported that it has received an initial order for full wind turbine electrical control systems worth more than $20 million from Ghodawat Energy in India. At 9:35 AM up only 0.9% at $29.07 on only 45,000 shares.

Ardea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: RDEA) is trading lower on the pricing of a public offering of 3,500,000 shares of its common stock via Jefferies.  Shares are down over 7% at $20.15 on about 30,000 shares.  The 52-week range is $8.78 to $23.90. At 9:35 AM down 2.1% at $21.31 on almost 300,000 shares.

CA Inc. (NASDAQ: CA) is down after it announced its Fiscal 2010 Restructuring Plan that includes a workforce reduction of approximately 1,000 positions and additional global facilities consolidations. For 2010, its guidance comes to Non-GAAP earnings growth of 7-15% or $1.60 to $1.71 EPS, while Thomson Reuters has estimates of $1.69 EPS. At 9:35 AM down 3.5% at $23.02 on over 1 million shares.

China Information Security Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: CPBY) is soaring after it reported that the State Grid Corporation of China selected its proprietary GeoStar and GeoGlobe geographic information systems as one of its only two suppliers for the build-out of the nationwide Smart Grid in China.  Shares are up 31% at $6.97 on over 700,000 shares, although this is still under its 52-week high as the trading range is $2.50 to $7.97.  At 9:36 AM up 29% at $6.90 and shares hit $7.18 so far as the high this morning.

Massey Energy Co. (NYSE: MEE) is down after a blast at one of its mines has killed at least 25 workers.  Jefferies has already reiterated a BUY on the stock calling it undervalued.  Massey was right at a 52-week high right before this accident, and shares are down over 7% at $50.65 on about 400,000 shares. At 9:36 AM shares are down 8.65% at $49.95 on 7.2 million shares (already passed the 5.4+ million shares daily average).

Star Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: CIGX) is up again on the initiation of a panel review over the ‘safety’ of tobacco, at least in menthol.  Shares are up 7.4% at $3.04 on 125,183 shares.  The 52-week range is $0.51 to $5.89. At 9:37 AM shares up 2.45% at %2.90 on almost 600,000 shares.

TiVo INc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) is trading up this morning after Janney Montgomery Scott reiterated a Buy rating and hiked its price target to $26 from $22… Shares are up 4.6% at $17.64 on about 80,000 shares.  At 9:37 AM shares are up 2.35% at$17.24 on 675,000 shares.

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JON C. OGG

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is up 2.1% at $215.10 after saying the iPad will be available on April 3m, 2010 in the U.S. but not for about another month in most international markets.

InterMune, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITMN) is soaring on positive drug data.  The company said that the FDA panel will review its lung drug, but the FDA staff has said some questioning remarks as well.  This stock has been very volatile on mixed drug data in recent months and there has been a lot of options trading around this one. At 8:47 AM EST we have seen 2.4 million shares trade hands and the stock is up 83% at $26.74 after a $14.61 close and versus a prior 52-week trading range of $10.48 to $18.14.

Solarfun Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: SOLF) is trading lower after mixed results.  Its Q4 EPS was $0.25 vs. $0.24 estimates from Thomson Reuters; while revenue rose over 10% to $184 million versus $185 million expected.  Shares were down 3% at $7.30 on 131,000 shares as of 8:47 AM EST.

Conexant Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT) is down sharply after it priced a public secondary offering of 14 million shares of its common stock at a price of $4.00 per share versus a $4.39 close and versus a $0.33 to $5.17 trading range of the last year.  At 8:48 AM EST we have seen 1.25 million shares and the stock is down 5.7% at $4.14.

Zanett Inc. (NASDAQ: ZANE) saw exponential gains yesterday.  The company is seeing profit taking and a reality check today.  At 8:51 AM ESt we have shares down 16% at $1.77 on about 45,000 shares.  Average volume is now listed as about 150,000 shares but that is because the figures were skewed by 8 million shares as the stock rose from $0.31 to $2.12 and hitting a high of $2.50.

RCN Corp. (NASDAQ: RCNI) is soaring.  The regional cable TV and internet provider is up 27% at $15.60 after the company agreed to be acquired by ABRY Partners for about $1.2 billion.

TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) is soaring again after yesterday’s gains.  Shares closed at $16.53 and shares are up 8% at $17.86 on about 1.6 million shares as of 8:53 AM EST.

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JON C. OGG

• “We are pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit fully affirmed the district court’s finding of contempt against EchoStar, including both the disablement and infringement provisions. 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. We will also seek further damages and contempt sanctions for the period of continued infringement thereafter. We will continue our efforts to protect our intellectual property from further infringement.”

TiVo has seen its stock spike by about 50% to $15.40 and at 11:51 AM EST we have seen a whopping 25 million shares trade hands.  Average volume is 1.75 million and the stock appears to have hit new 52-week highs.

JON C. OGG

JON OGG

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a stay on an injunction that would have kept Dish customers from using their digital video recorders while the patent case was ongoing.

Tivo asserted today that it would ultimately win in court.

A federal court last month rejected Dish Networks’ argument that it created a workaround that did not violate Tivo patents. A that time, Tivo was awarded $103 million, in addition ota previous $105 million payment made a year ago. — Mike Tarsala