Apple Faces Patent Suit Over iTunes Store
Apple Faces Patent Suit Over iTunes Store
Posted 05/23/2010 at 7:57pm
| by Justin Kerr
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Apple is known in the tech industry for being a bit of a patent bully, but it turns out what goes around really does come around. This week a number of infringement cases were filed in a Texas federal court which allege that iTunes, Safari, and even OSX infringe on a number of patents held by a company named Sharing Sound. The most interesting of the suits filed was against the iTunes store, which as far as we can tell, insinuates that Apple should not be allowed to sell music through the iTunes interface. The patent being contested would prevent Apple from using any type of online store environment which allows them to provide song previews, a shopping cart, or even an application to play any purchased content. The absence of these features would make iTunes decidedly less useful than it already is, so I imagine Apple is taking this one rather seriously.
Most people wouldn't recognize Sharing Sound on its own, but codefendants include Rhapsody, Napster, Brilliant Digital Entertainment, and Microsoft. Apple is the big player named in the suit, but similar actions were filed against Amazon, Netflix, Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, and even GameStop. It is somewhat unclear why Sharing Sound would wait so long to test out the validity of its patent holding, but were pretty sure a lawyer was carefully consulted at each step. A verdict in their favor could radically alter the online music distribution landscape, but is also the key reason why it is likely to die off. The better question here is not if Sharing Sound will be able to lock out the big players in the online music industry, but rather why the patent office would grant such a broad and ridiculous patent at all.
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m31337
May 24, 2010 at 9:38am
You also have to remember that the loser usually pays the legal fees for both sides so moving before you have a solid case can be extremely expensive.
pforbing
May 24, 2010 at 6:26am
I bet they knew it from the beginning. They were probably waiting for iTunes to get so big that if it were to be shut down it would be crippling. They are more likely to get a big payday out of the deal.
dethdeks
May 23, 2010 at 11:04pm
the one thing that always makes me laugh when i read about company's being sued by smaller companies for things are its usely small companies suing bigger companies for things that have been out for years. like seriously they just realized now that itunes played a sample of the song that you may be interested in or that you can buy music and other digital media off itunes or play said digital media on itunes? like seriously where the hell have you been the past what 10-12 years or how ever long itunes has been out for. i agree that i think this is just another "i want money anyway i can get it so im going to sue someone for some stupid reason and for a ridiculous amount of money." i think there should be a law/exception on patients that makes it so people cant do things like this. make it so that if said patent holder doesn't pursue legal actions right away on supposedly patent infringing issues then they void there right to pursue legal actions at all and set a set time limit on these things because like i said before its been how long since itunes came out so you cant tell me this company just realized that itunes was infringing on one of there patents.
aviaggio
May 24, 2010 at 10:22am
It's a fine line. Patent trolls are not out to shut down their competitors, as none of them have any active businesses other than suing for patent infringement. They wait until the industry is large enough that they can coerce a settlement or be awards large damages and royalties. They want to businesses they sue to keep doing business so they can continue to collect royalties. If the companies are too small you put them out of business, so it's best to wait till they are big and wealthy.
But on the flip side the act of waiting and *not* trying enforcing your patent actually works against them.
There was a time when all these nuisance suits by trolls were highly effective. The tides seem to be turning for them tho, even in venerable Marshall Texas.
It could also be they are trying to get their suit in before the Supreme Court rules on Bilski, which could wind up completely invalidating all software patents for good.
SininStyle
May 24, 2010 at 5:28am
Takes years to get together with multiple lawyers and come up with a plan. Its on them to prove the case . Cant just walk into a court room and say its Apple of course they did it look at their history.
Chief_runningwater
May 23, 2010 at 9:01pm
I'd have to agree with you on this one. I hope apply loses this battle so I can laugh at them.
Danthrax66
May 23, 2010 at 8:35pm
I don't see this as a ridiculous patent they developed the first system that made this possible it was their idea and patents are designed to protect unique ideas from being stolen with out permission. And besides it is apple who stole the idea so fuck them.
aviaggio
May 23, 2010 at 10:00pm
Not that I'm any lover of Apple, but software patents need to be invalidated. Patents are supposed to protect unique inventions, ones which another entity would be unlikely to develop on their own. Being the first to create an online music store doesn't really fit this description. It's not an invention, nor is it something so unique that it would or could not have been easily developed by another company without use of the patented material -- which is of course what happened.
It's just another troll with a retarded software patent that's trying to milk money from the industry. Why else would they file in East Texas?
Danthrax66
May 24, 2010 at 9:35am
But that was a unique invention just like any other software yeah it probably shouldn't be that way but still just because it isn't something physical doesn't mean it isn't an invention.
aviaggio
May 24, 2010 at 10:16am
"just because it isn't something physical doesn't mean it isn't an invention."
Yeah, it kinda does. That's the whole point, and one of the reasons why the patent system is such a mess today. Could you imagine what the industry would be like if Xerox had gotten a patent on the first GUI? There would be no Windows. No MacOS. No Linux desktop. Software patents don't foster new ideas and creativity, they lock them out.
Biceps
May 24, 2010 at 1:26pm
If it is not physical, then it is an idea, not an invention. I agree that software patents should be done away with... we would get better software and better games. And no more software patent trolls.
Vegan
May 23, 2010 at 10:27pm
Sure it could. If it didn't sell music and apps, and handle all my podcasts, and sync all of that to my ipod every day, it would be more useless.
gendoikari1
May 24, 2010 at 5:37am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_online_music_stores
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/191-managing-ipod-without-itunes
http://ipodtouchtricks.net/os-30-jailbreak/how-to-installsync-jailbroken-apps-with-appsync-on-ipod-touch-os-30-mipatch-alternative/
http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Software.html
And best of all, not a single chrome fruit to be found.
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