Discovery sues Amazon for infringement of e-book encryption patent
By Paul Biba
The cable programmer Discovery Communications filed suit against Amazon for patent infringement, according the the Wall Street Journal:
The patent named in Discovery’s suit, for an “electronic book security and copyright protection system,” was filed in 1999 and awarded to Discovery in 2007, according to online records from the U.S. Patent and Trade OfficeIn the 1990s, Discovery founder John Hendricks led research at his company into digital delivery of television and book content, filing for several patents in those areas, according to patent-office records. In 2004, the company sold about 20 patents relating to TV to a consortium of cable operators, according to people close to Discovery.
Discovery is claiming that one or more of these patents is being infringed by Amazon’s digital encryption system. Patent litigation is probably the most expensive form of litigation to bring. I would suspect that Discovery has been waiting for a big player, such as Amazon, to arrive so as to justify the cost of the action. That’s why we haven’t seen them suing any of the smaller players before. Without further details there is no way of knowing if any of the other DRM methodologies infringe any of Discovery’s patents. Thanks to Michael von Glahn for the link.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:41 am
The patent looks dubious to me – even in 1999 the idea of transmitting encrypted ebooks over a wireless network to a portable ebook reader was obvious.
However, there’s one easy way for Amazon to avoid this patent. Switch to DRM free ebooks!
March 18th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Oddly enough, past patent suits of this kind – vz the one that claimed ownership of showing any graphics on the internet – went after small fry first. The theory there is that the small fry can’t even afford the legal costs, so they will settle; then the fact that small fry settled serves as ‘evidence’ that the patent claims are valid.
Another reason why the suit is coming now might be that Discovery needs money. (Parent company GE is in a tight spot, it’s said.)
This as it’s a reported common practice among companies with an IP ‘portfolio’ to assign junior members to go over all patents and look around for somebody to sue.
As usual, the patent system seems to be one giant hairball batted back and forth amongst lawyers with no real protection or encouragement for invention.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I thought some Federal Court just recently invalidated the concept of business method patents like this. So, unless Discovery has an actual physical invention in hand from 1999 that the kindle copies, they may be out of luck.