Music ID Service Shazam Sued
Apple, Amazon, Verizon, AT&T, Samsung And Others Also Named
Music ID and discovery tool Shazam has been sued for patent infringement. Apple, Amazon, Napster, Motorola, Samsung Gracenote, Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, AT&T Mobility and Pantech Wireless were also named in the suit as profiting from the alleged violation.
U.S. Patent No. 6,941,275, was issued to Remi Swierczek and Tune Hunter in September 2005. The patent covers "a music identification/purchasing system, specifically to a method for marking the time and the name of the radio station in portable device such as a key holder, watch, cellular phone, beeper or the like which will allow the user to learn via internet or regular telephone the name of the song, artist and/or music company by matching the stored data with broadcast archive." Shazam, which is among the most popular in the iPhones App Store, is accused of violating the patent with its music ID application.
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The patent infringement claim is more than likely a non-starter. The patents describe completely different methods of recognition: Tune Hunter sounds like a glorified notepad to jot down what time you heard a song on what station. I would be very surprised if the court decided that the technology behind Shazam (actual sound recognition through the microphone in a mobile) was sufficiently foreseeable as to be equivalent,
At the same time, though, a number of those co-defendants are wealthy enough to settle. Looks like someone’s in for a windfall. Yecch…
It’s complete nonsense. Keeping and checking logs is not the same thing as audio pattern recognition. That’s like putting a patent on shoes and suing the manufacturer of cars for stealing your idea for things that you put your body inside for travelling from place to place.