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SightSound Patents Return; Napster Gets Sued
from the oh,-those-guys... dept
You may remember SightSound as the company that sued CDNow years ago for violating their patent on "electronic sales and distribution of digital audio or video signals." You might wonder how that could possibly be patentable, but you'd have to ask the USPTO to find out the answer. Bertelsmann, the eventual owners of CDNow, tried to have the patent thrown out, but eventually settled the case. However, that means SightSound still has those patents, and they're trying to use them... to get money out of companies. The latest is the "new" Napster, who apparently talked to SightSound about licensing the patents, but eventually decided it didn't make any sense. That, of course, means that SightSound needs to break out the lawyers and file a patent infringement lawsuit. Again, if anyone could explain how something as obvious as "electronic sales and distribution of digital audio or video signals," could be patentable, I'm all ears.
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Here are some ears...
Electronic downloading might seem like an 'obvious' thing, and not worthy of a patent, but you are saying that in 2005. These patents were secured long before the Internet, in 1987. If you actually read the patents, you will begin to understand that the process was devised, and clearly articulated for mass distribution regardless the 'source'. It was devised for telecommunications download through multiple sources which now encompasses the Internet. Read the Markman Report on the www.sightsound.com website. Perhaps you'll be a little more informed.
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