Spotify accused of infringing Yahoo software patents
Spotify is facing a patent infringement suit from IP licensing company Excalibur, which claims that the streaming service’s “digital fingerprint” software infringes patents owned by Yahoo.
Yahoo assigned the rights to manage 2,648 patents, including the patents-in-suit, to Excalibur in 2016.
In the suit, filed at the US District Court for the District of Delaware on Monday, January 28, Excalibur asserted four patents (US numbers 8,392,148; 8,160,480; 7,454,509; and 8,352,331).
The patents cover technology including digital fingerprints for audio files, and selecting music based on a listener’s preferences.
Excalibur claimed that Spotify’s Echoprint system, which obtains a “data signal” from each audio file, infringes the ‘148 patent, which recites a method of obtaining a data signal via a computer processor.
The complaint also alleged that the technology behind Spotify’s personalised playlists infringes the ‘509 patent, which covers a computer-implemented method of “determining a first community of members by filtering a data store of preferences for data stream content”.
Excalibur highlighted Spotify’s services such as “Discover Weekly”, a playlist based on “what you and those with similar music tastes listen to”.
The licensing company also claimed that the IP covers the means of “determining a relationships between items”, which it said was infringed by services such as Spotify Radio, which selects music based on an initial choice by the listener.
Excalibur is seeking a judgment from the court that Spotify has wilfully infringed the IP. The company also requested compensatory damages and legal costs.
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