Patent Troll claims ownership of podcasts

Personal Audio, an audio technology company, has claimed ownership to the patent of a podcast – who knew!?

The company has said it holds complete ownership to the podcast formula, as of a patent filed back in 2009.

“Apparatus for disseminating a series of episodes represented by media files via the Internet as said episodes become available,” is the name of Claim 31 in the 8,112,504 patent, and Personal Audio has now sent out letters to various companies, asking for payments for licensing fees and damages.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has picked on the “patent troll”, and has vowed to help podcasters find a council to fight the claims.

The EFF says that if you’re heard from Personal Audio, please send them an email at podcasting@eff.org.

Source: EFF

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Tags: active, EFF, patent trolls, patents, Personal Audio, The Electronic Frontier Foundation