Napster is once again the target of an intellectual-property lawsuit, this time on the receiving end of a patent infringement claim from a small company called SightSound Technologies.
SightSound, which holds several patents related to selling and downloading music and video online, on Monday asked a court to block Napster from selling music online while the trial unfolds. Licensing discussions had broken down, leading to the suit, SightSound executives said.
“This lawsuit is the regrettable outcome of a long process that could have been resolved amicably,” Scott Sander, chief executive officer of SightSound, said in a statement. “It is surprising that Napster has taken this road given that it seems to have been working to restore its brand value.”
SightSound is one of a handful of companies that are pursuing patent royalties for what many critics say are basic Internet functions such as e-commerce or streaming video. The spate of lawsuits and royalty demands has added an extra twist of financial uncertainty to many Web businesses, leading to calls for reform of the patent process.
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