Real wins patent victory

RealNetworks, the company behind the digital media player, Real Player, has won a patent infringement lawsuit brought by San Francisco-based technology licensing company, Friskit.

Frisket had been seeking damages of over $70m against Real, but Judge William W. Schwarzer of the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted RealNetworks' motion for summary judgment invalidating the claims of four patents asserted by Friskit.

In its motion, RealNetworks relied upon the recent legal decision in KSR vs Teleflex, in which the Supreme Court ruled on the proper standard for determining obviousness in patent cases.

The Supreme Court rejected any "rigid" application of existing tests for obviousness in favour of the "expansive and flexible approach" set forth in the Supreme Court's earlier decisions. RealNetworks relied upon that analysis to argue that Friskit's patent claims relating to systems for enabling continuous streaming playback from internet sites were "obvious combinations of elements found in the prior art", including RealNetworks' own internet products.

Judge Schwarzer agreed with RealNetworks that "all of the individual features of Friskit's patents which allow the user to easily search for and listen to streaming media existed in the prior art."

He also agreed with RealNetworks that "streaming media, including streaming audio, also existed prior to Friskit's patents," and that "a number of web sites allowed users to locate media to download or stream." After considering the prior art presented by RealNetworks, Judge Schwarzer concluded that "the idea of integrating these different components was not novel."

"We are very pleased with the results of today's ruling," said Robert Kimball, senior vice president and general counsel for RealNetworks.

"Since the legal dispute between the parties commenced over four years ago, Real has vigorously denied Friskit's patent claims and defended our position that we do not infringe its patents.

"While we respect intellectual property rights and the rights of inventors to protect their innovations, we have also made it clear that RealNetworks will not be pressured into taking a license for technology we do not use and patents that we do not infringe despite the cost of fighting in court."

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!