Spotify is being sued by a professional IP representative for allegedly infringing on its patents.
Excalibur IP lodged a lawsuit with the District of Delaware Court on Monday (January 28).
The complaint accuses Spotify of infringing the rights of four patents, all of which were born at Yahoo!
Excalibur IP was assigned the rights to represent over 2,000 patents owned by Yahoo! in 2016.
The four patents cited in the Spotify complaint refer to software which processes digital fingerprints (‘thumbprints’) of audio files, as well as tailoring transmissions based on the preference of the listener.
One of the cited Yahoo! patents regards tools which recommend digital items based on the previous behavior of a user.
A section of the Excalibur lawsuit claims: “Spotify practices a method that comprises determining a first community of members by filtering a data store of preferences for data stream content, said data stream content comprising data stream elements, said members of said first community having at least one stored preference in common.
“For example, in order to create personalized playlists (e.g., Discover Weekly, Daily Mix, Release Radar, Spotify Radio, etc.), Spotify determines a first community of members by filtering a data store of preferences for data stream content, said data stream content comprising data stream elements, said members of said first community having at least one stored preference in common.”
Another section of the lawsuit specifically accuses Spotify of infringement through the streaming company’s ‘Echoprint’ technology.
It reads: “Spotify practices a method that comprises determining, by the processor, a match of the digital thumbprint with at least one of the plurality of reference thumbprints when a plurality of different sections of the digital thumbprint that have start times differing by a given amount match a plurality of different sections of one or more reference thumbprints whose start times differ by approximately the given amount.
“For example, Spotify’s Echoprint determines, by the processor, a match of the digital thumbprint with at least one of the plurality of reference thumbprints when a plurality of different sections of the digital thumbprint that have start times differing by a given amount match a plurality of different sections of one or more reference thumbprints whose start times differ by approximately the given amount.”
You can download the full Excalibur IP complaint (not including Exhibits) through this link.Music Business Worldwide
