Your daily source of news for the digital music revolution.
dSounds.com is For Sale

Pat-rights demands 12% from iTunes

Pat-rights is going to launch a series of legal actions against iTunes. The first one will be a formal notification issued by Pat-rights' Attorney, Mr. Joseph J. Zito, demanding Apple a reasonable license fee, 12% of gross sales of iTunes music tracks and iPods, and Apple will have to accept it in 21 days. Mr. Zito is a
well-experienced patent counsel, and has actively engaged in intellectual property litigation in District and Appellate Courts.

Everyone knows that iTunes allows a user to play purchased music tracks to up to 5 computers, without repeated payment, under the condition that the computers are registered. The computer registration involves a process of identity verification in which a user is required to key in into the computer the correct Apple ID and password he used to purchase the song.

This is certainly a patentable technology. If iTunes does not patent it, there must be a very good reason for them not to do so- someone else has patented this.

Pat-rights named the technology as "Internet/Remote User Identity Verification", earned a US Patent 6,665,797 therefor, and world-wide patents pending. In the end of 2003, Apple indicated in its communication to Pat-rights that Apple had no interested in licensing it and remain silence ever since then.

"We have kept a close watch on every development of iTunes. We believe this is willful infringement", said CEO of Pat-rights, Mr. Philip H.K. Tse,"We lose face. Apple shows no respect to us and our patent rights!"

The US Patent 6,665,797 is written in plain English, even a layman can read and understand it. "They are playing unfair to their customers, not us." Mr. Tse further commented.

According to US Law, any willful infringement found by a court can result in injunction as well as treble damages. If an injunction is granted, then Apple's customer will not be able to enjoy their music tracks as free as they have been.

�@"We know that other internet music shops are not making money," Mr. Tse further noted, "but we are considering seriously offering one of them an exclusive license."

Pat-rights is going to launch a series of legal actions against iTunes. The first one will be a formal notification issued by Pat-rights' Attorney, Mr. Joseph J. Zito, demanding Apple a reasonable license fee, 12% of gross sales of iTunes music tracks and iPods, and Apple will have to accept it in 21 days. Mr. Zito is a
well-experienced patent counsel, and has actively engaged in intellectual property litigation in District and Appellate Courts.

-----

Abstract of Patent 6.665,797

A central program comprising a EI sub-program for providing identity information of the rightful user thereof for accessing a network central computer to obtain service(s) or software product(s) or alike, in which a secure operation on an account of the rightful user for payment therefor involved; and a AS sub-program for using the existence of the EI sub-program in a computer as a precondition for authorising use of those software products obtained on that computer. The central program is for managing the use of the individual
sub-programs therein so that the AS sub-program can be protected from being copied individually.

-----

Between this and the music industry wanting more of the pie, you can bet that the price of online music will be going up. This patent could also have a serious effect on many other sights, including porn sites, eBay, Amazon and virtually any other site which requires you to log on prior to purchasing something. I'll post more info once I read through the entire patent, but it looks like another one of those patents that could cause some pretty big waves both online and off.

Tinfoil Music - Digital Media and Music News