Patent news - Californian company receives patent for Podcasting.

14 August 2009

Californian company receives patent for Podcasting.

By Zerbakht Khan

The Californian media analyst firm VoloMedia was granted a US Patent for the protection of "a method of providing episodic media".

The patent relates generally to personalised media, including the basic elements of podcasting. Patent number 7,568,213, filed in November 2003, was awarded last week to Volvomedia.

The patent protects "a method for providing episodic media, the method comprising: providing a user with access to a channel dedicated to episodic media, wherein the episodic media provided over the channel is pre-defined into one or more episodes by a remote publisher of the episodic media".

The patent is not restricted to RSS-based podcasts.

The patent bears close scrutiny by the personal computing community who will use their efforts to ensure podcasting remains accessible and free to use. But enforcing the patent could result in licence fees for podcasters.

The patent could also apply to iTunes, Twitter and Facebook. Apple, through its iTunes platform, distributes podcasts and radio broadcasts to millions of people.

Volomedia's founder, Murgesh Navar, claims that the patent filing in 2003 was made almost a year before the start of podcasting. However, this is inconsistent with other sources: Wikipedia's page on podcasting states that podcasting "began to take hold in late 2004".

Patents for broad inventions for things that have already been invented may harm our ability to invent. The problem is exacerbated by the super compensatory damages system for patents under American law.

However, Murgesh Navar has assured the computing community that it is VoloMedia's intent "to work collaboratively with key participants in the industry".

It is hoped that the patent will further grow and accelerate the market than impede it.

Zerbakht Khan is a legal assistant to Izaz Ali (Izaz.Ali@lawdit.co.uk) Izaz is a commercial lawyer who specialises in information technology law and intellectual property law with an emphasis on IT, escrow, online and off-line contracts, and the buying and selling of online businesses.