Well, it’s seemingly a rite of passage now for tech startups in the US to be sued for patent infringement, so Spotify can now join the club. The company is being sued by PacketVideo, which claims the streaming music service infringes patents including one for a ‘Device for the distribution of music information in digital form’. Techdirt points out that the somewhat vague wording of the patent seemingly covers “the very generic idea of streaming music” – meaning other services could potentially also be in PacketVideo’s targets. Both patents were filed in the mid-1990s, but not by PacketVideo – it acquired them in 2007 when it bought Swiss firm SDC. In a statement, Spotify flags up its “highly-innovative, proprietary hybrid technology” and promises that it is “strongly contesting PacketVideo’s claim”. PacketVideo itself was acquired by Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo in August 2010 (Bulletin, 3-Aug-10), with DoCoMo saying at the time that it planned to use the company’s technology to create “an all-new domain of services that allow users to easily link their mobile handsets with home electronic devices to remotely enjoy and share content”. Source: Billboard
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