Quakester2000 reports us that Microsoft has been
sued by a small New York
company, E-Data, for violating a 20-year-old patent it holds. The company
charges that Microsoft's new music download service in Europe infringes
on the patent that covers transmitting data to a remote point of
sale:
 E-Data, a company that's focused largely on licensing its
patents, contends that Microsoft, Internet service provider Tiscali and
digital music company OD2 are collectively trespassing on its rights with
their new music download services, recently released in several European
countries. E-Data is asking that the services, variously called MSN Music
Club and Tiscali Music Club, be shut down until a patent licensing deal is
worked out.
"(Those companies) are offering downloads
of music over the Internet, which can be downloaded onto CDs for a fee,"
said E-Data spokesman Gerald Angowitz. "We believe that violates our
patent."
The patent in question was granted in
1985 and covers the transmission of information to a remote point-of-sale
location, where information is then transferred to a material object.
Courts in the United States have held that this does not include saving
information such as a song onto a computer's hard drive, but that selling
the information on a physical media such as a disc at an in-store kiosk
could be covered.
E-Data contends that when music is sold
over the Internet, a person's home computer takes the role of that remote
kiosk, and when the music is saved on a CD or an MP3 player, it has been
transferred to the requisite physical object.
Angowitz said his company's patent
expired in the United States in January, making Apple's service -- which
launched in April -- an unlikely target for an infringement suit.
However, other music companies that
previously allowed download and burning might find themselves in court on
the issue. Federal law allows companies to sue for past infringements for
six years after a patent has expired, and E-Data says it still may take a
look at US companies that were operating services in 2002 and
earlier. |
The suit was filed by E-Data in Germany last week but E-Data's
patent is also valid in nine other European countries, including England,
France, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and
Sweden. For now only Microsoft has been sued by the N.Y. company but you can
wonder if others are to follow. Read the complete article here.
Source: ZDNet UK
