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14 April 2015Patents

USPTO invalidates podcasting patent after EFF challenge

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has persuaded the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to invalidate a podcasting patent that has been asserted in several legal battles.

On Friday (April 10), the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled that US patent number 8,112,504, owned by licensing company Personal Audio, was invalid on the grounds that it was obvious and anticipated.

The USPTO was considering an inter partes review petition that had been filed by the EEF against the patent.

The patent covers an “apparatus for disseminating a series of episodes represented by media files via the internet” and had been the centre of several infringement claims filed by the licensing company.

In May 2013, the EFF set up an online campaign to raise funds for its legal challenge against the patent.

Under the name “ Save Podcasting”, the campaign was created to “stop the patent troll Personal Audio from doing more damage to online broadcasters”.

The EFF filed the IPR petition the following October.

Daniel Nazer, staff attorney at EFF, said: “We’re grateful for all the support for our challenge to this patent. Today is a big victory for the podcasting community.

“We’re glad that the USPTO recognised what we all knew: ‘podcasting’ has been around for many years and this company does not own it,” he added.

One of the most notable targets of Personal Audio’s claims was US comedian Adam Carolla. The licensing company claimed Carolla’s podcast had infringed the ‘504 patent.

Despite Carolla setting up an online campaign in an attempt to generate public support after Personal Audio filed the claim,  he settled with the company in August last year.

Personal Audio also targeted broadcaster NBC which it later settled with, and CBS which was found liable for patent infringement and ordered to pay $1.3 million.

Personal Audio did not respond to a request for comment.

IPRs are trial proceedings that petitioners can file at the PTAB to dispute a patent’s validity. The reviews were introduced as part of the America Invents Act.

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