Technically, we’re told, patents only are supposed to apply to specific inventions, and not general ideas. It doesn’t always work that way in practice, of course. AdamR points us to a lawsuit filed by some guy against Microsoft, claiming patent infringement in Zune’s “Buy from FM” feature that lets you buy a song that you hear over FM radio. The guy is claiming willful infringement and demanding treble damages, because he apparently wrote Microsoft a letter back in 2006. Of course, there appears to be a pretty big problem with the claim, in that the patents in question (6,463,469 and 6,473,792) appear to describe a process of unlocking music already found on a local harddrive — which is not how the Zune’s feature works.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story