Amazon targeted by Personal Audio carpet lawsuits
Having been partly denied by Apple, Personal Audio swung its wide-scale lawsuit campaign to Amazon late Tuesday with a new complaint (below). The complaint tried to seize on the expected popularity of the Kindle Fire and claims that, simply by supporting downloads of and navigation for music playlists, the Android tablet violates two patents granted in 2001 and 2009. An $8 million one-time payment from Apple was used as the only precedent for the case.
As with previous attempts, Personal Audio claims that it's facing "irreparable injury and damage" from the alleged violations but makes clear the financial motivations behind the lawsuit. The threat of a permanent ban on the Kindle Fire is mentioned only after a demand that Amazon pay damages for the time it was possibly using the patents without permission.
The lawsuit, filed in a patent lawsuit-friendly Eastern District of Texas court, fits the traditional strategy of a patent troll attempt and of Personal Audio in particular as a non-practicing entity that relies solely on royalties and threatened lawsuits for its income. Despite spending much of the complaint describing founder James Logan as a "successful businessman" and a "prolific inventor," the lawsuit effectively reveals that Logan's work in creating real products having stopped after he resigned as CEO of touchscreen developer MicroTouch to form Personal Audio. He was "frustrated with the lack of radio listening options" and set out to make an audio player but, without an actual product, instead let companies like Creative, Rio, and Apple create players entirely on their own.
In the absence of significant competition to Apple, Personal Audio tried suing Apple twice to get more money from the company. It was denied in court after being told that it couldn't attempt to redefine how much it was owed after winning a payout that was supposed to represent everything it was owed.
By Electronista Staff
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