EFF Files To Invalidate Bogus 'Podcasting' Patent That Is Being Used To Shakedown Famous Podcasters

from the hope-it-works dept

Wed, Oct 16th 2013 9:24pm — Mike Masnick

We've written a few times about the patent troll "Personal Audio" which claims to hold a patent (US Patent 8,112,504) that it says covers podcasting. With this patent it's been busy shaking down the creators of a bunch of popular podcasts. The company's owner and his lawyer recently asserted (somehow, without laughing) that their patent was "the roadmap" for podcasting, even though no one involved in the early days of podcasting was even remotely aware of the patent.

It's taken some time, but the EFF has been targeting this particular patent, and has now officially challenged the patent seeking to get it invalidated.

"Bad patents like this one slow down innovation—exactly the opposite of what the patent system was intended to do," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Julie Samuels, the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. "We are thrilled to challenge this bad patent and make the world safer for creators and podcasters."

The process involving these kinds of things is very slow and convoluted, but hopefully this patent can be busted, and podcasters won't have to live in fear of a shakedown letter from Personal Audio.

Inter Partes Review Petition of Us Pat No 8112504 (PDF)Inter Partes Review Petition of Us Pat No 8112504 (Text)

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Filed Under: patent, patent troll, podcasting
Companies: eff, personal audio

12 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2013 @ 10:05pm

There is something really wrong with the US patents system!
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2013 @ 11:59pm

WEBcasting
Before Apple branded it 'pod' casting, episodic casts on the net were call 'web' casting. They predate this patent.
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- PaulT (profile), 17 Oct 2013 @ 12:13am
  
  Re: WEBcasting
  Sadly, no. Look at the previous article - "this is actually a "child" patent of an earlier application, so they can argue a priority date from back in 1996."
  
  Stop with the Apple hate this time, this is pure patent bullshit that's predicated on the fact that some podcasters have found a way to make money, not that Apple's name for them has become the most popular.
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  - TheLastCzarnian (profile), 17 Oct 2013 @ 7:15am
    
    Re: Re: WEBcasting
    Naw, keep on hatin'. Apple is still a troll. who else would mold their case to match the shape of internal components, PATENT it, and SUE their own supplier? (Yeah, PCBs are rectangular)
    "Rounded corners" (rolls eyes)
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2013 @ 12:26am
  
  Re: WEBcasting
  Indeed. But they don't predate the seeded patent, which is from 1996, before the Web really took to the mainstream.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2013 @ 1:29am

Actual inventor of the podcast...
My old boss, Doug Kaye, is widely credited with being one of the inventors the podcast - he was among the first to put an MP3 in an RSS feed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_podcasting

That was way before 2012 and given that he was a recording engineer & software developer in the late 1970's, I'd be very surprised if he hadn't thought of it eons ago.
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- gyffes, 17 Oct 2013 @ 4:16am
  
  Re: Actual inventor of the podcast...
  Sooooo... it's Doug Kaye's fault (for not patenting his idea) that we suffer this Trollish Fool?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2013 @ 6:25am

Don't pay a hostage taking patent troll
Why don't the people getting sued by this patent troll simply announce it on their podcast and give the troll bad PR. Don't give in to a bully, bully them back. Tell them you'd rather go bankrupt on legal fees invalidating their patent then pay their ransom.

For the same reason I'd never give 1 cent to a hostage taker if they kidnapped my family, since it'll just encourage them to take more people hostage to collect ransom, because it works.

Drug gangs in Mexico have diversified into the kidnapping business for the same reason patent trolls do this shakedown tactic, because victims families are dumb enough to pay the hostage takers millions of dollars in ransom.
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Tom Gallagher, 17 Oct 2013 @ 7:37am

Stupid Patents
The process for invalidating a patent inside the PTO (you can also do it in a federal court) is no more complicated nor convoluted than the process for getting a patent.

Mark Cuban thinks that all process patents should be banned. Mark Cuban is stupid.
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- Dirkmaster (profile), 17 Oct 2013 @ 9:24am
  
  Re: Stupid Patents
  Cuban may be a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them.
  
  And I'm sure that many here would like to here your reasons for WHY process patents SHOULDN'T be banned. I, for one, agree with him that they hurt a lot more than they help.
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  - Atkray (profile), 17 Oct 2013 @ 12:09pm
    
    Re: Re: Stupid Patents
    Uh, I made the mistake of checking the link in his name....
    
    "Paraphrasing F. Scott Fitzgerald �Ideas are like balloons, they belong to whomever is holding the string.� I provide strings for the creators of ideas."
    
    .... he thinks that you can own an idea.
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- John Fenderson (profile), 17 Oct 2013 @ 10:45am
  
  Re: Stupid Patents
  So everyone who disagrees with you is stupid, end of story? Or are you going to give us your reasoning not only for why process patents should be allowed and for why Mark Cuban is an idiot? Dirkmaster is right, we'd be very interested in hearing your rationale.
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