Discovery throws the book at Amazon
By John Lister
The company behind the Discovery channel is suing Amazon for allegedly breaching a patent in producing its Kindle reader. Discovery Communications Inc says Amazon should pay damages and make a royalty agreement to continue selling the electronic book device.
According to the lawsuit, Discovery founder John Hendricks received a patent in November 2007 for what the company is calling “a secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission and sale of electronic books.” That’s the same month Amazon put the first version of its Kindle reader on sale.
Discovery isn’t commenting on whether it believes manufacturers of other electronic reading devices such as Sony have also breached the patents. Amazon is not making any public statement about the lawsuit.
Though the Kindle came out the same month as the patent was granted, Discovery first filed the patent in 1999. (The case certainly shows how the lengthy patent approval process can appear hopelessly inadequate given how fast technology changes today.)
How the case would fare in court is very open to question. There are elements of the patent wording which sound remarkably similar to how the Kindle works, particularly references to distributing books over a wireless telephone network. That’s one of the key selling points of the Kindle.
In theory, the simple fact that the patent was granted means anyone using the same technology during the period of the patent would automatically be in breach. However, it may be that a court would decide the patent is so wide-ranging that simply duplicating some elements of the description isn’t enough to be considered a breach.
CNET’s Peter Glaskowsky also notes that Amazon might attempt to find a patent from another firm which duplicates some aspects of the Discovery patent, which could make it much more difficult to enforce. Another option would be to highlight some technical point in which the Kindle’s operation varies from the precise wording of the patent.
The lawsuit follows claims from the Authors Guild that the Kindle’s text-to-speech feature violates copyright laws on public performances of books.
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