Fire Alarm Companies

Hello Spotify. Welcome to America, where if you something even remotely innovative, you get sued for patent infringement. In fact, only a few weeks after entering the U.S. market (finally) is Spotify sued for patent infringement by PacketVideo. I knew the name sounded familiar ... PacketVideo and then I remembered. A Decade Before it was considered one of the hottest startups to try on the planet to find out how video streaming on mobile phones (which I then I thought have not found convincing - admit ll I ', I was totally wrong on, but the was before the invention of the large screened smartphones that we have today). PacketVideo course to live up to the early high expectations failed, and last we have heard of the company, DoCoMo has been for what seems a lot less money than it gained increased over the years.

Now you could argue that perhaps PacketVideo has a legitimate claim here. After all, the company has been well over a decade and was an early pioneer in streaming efforts. But ... The details suggest, not so much. The actual patent in question is 5,636,276, for a wide "Device for the distribution of music in digital form. 'Sound? Of course, as the patent attorneys in the audience say, it 's not the title of the patent, but the claims. So go read the claims and try not to gag. What 's describes the very general idea of ??streaming music. Here 's the key claim:

a central storage device that is connected to a communications network and has a database of digitized music information and a terminal that is connected to the central storage device via the communication network, wherein the central storage device equipped with a retrieval module and said modules with the ability to interact via the communication network to order and selectively transfer selected music information, with the selected music information with a defined format for transmission in a digital music information object, the format with a core and a number of organized additional layers, the core with at least one object identification code, object structure information, a consumer and an encryption code table and one or more additional layers, including the actual music information, with the central storage device has an encryption module for the encryption of the music information object before transmission using the encryption table, and wherein the terminal has a decryption module for decrypting the music information object before its reproduction using the encryption table, an interpretation module for interpreting and Reproductive conditioning of the music information object and a device with identification data to permit identification of the terminal and the consumer, the information accessible through the interpretation module and the decryption module is checked for authorization.

Now here's the thing. When this patent was filed in 1995, this was not a unique idea. You could have asked any semi-competent engineer how would you build a digital music streaming service, and you would have received a similar general explanation. The problem was never in understanding the various pieces you need to put together. The difficulty at the time was getting enough bandwidth to do this reasonably... and getting any sort of licensing in an era before most label execs even knew what the internet was.

Oh, and let 's get to the important role PacketVideo had nothing to do with this patent. The company just bought it a few years back. It 's nothing in this patent that some amazing breakthrough or innovation was important. Spotify is an amazing product, not because of this patent, but because, as stated, and it actually built a working product.

Once again we see patents as a tool to shake down companies that actually innovate, as it is running, with a ridiculously broad patent, which is the actual state of the art zippo used contributed.

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