Comments on: Discovery sues Amazon for infringement of e-book encryption patent

By: Miko Barnes

Miko Barnes — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:57:36 +0000

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.

By: pond

pond — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:47:28 +0000

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.

By: Paul Durrant

Paul Durrant — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:41:10 +0000

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!