News

Microsoft sued over music-download service in Europe

October 13, 2003

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. -- E-Data has sued Microsoft, charging that the software giant's new music download service in Europe infringes on a patent it has owned for nearly 20 years.

According to an article inZDNet UK, E-Data, which is focused largely on licensing its patents, contends that Microsoft, Internet service provider Tiscali and digital music company OD2 are collectively trespassing on its rights with their new music download services, recently released in several European countries.

E-Data is asking that the services, variously called MSN Music Club and Tiscali Music Club, be shut down until a patent licensing deal is worked out, the article said.

The patent in question was granted in 1985 and covers the transmission of information to a remote point-of-sale location, such as an in-store kiosk, where information is then transferred to a material object, such as a disc.

E-Data contends that when music is sold over the Internet, a person's home computer takes the role of that remote kiosk, and when the music is saved on a CD or an MP3 player, it has been transferred to the requisite physical object.

A Microsoft spokesman had no immediate comment on the suit, which E-Data filed in Germany last week. E-Data's patent is also valid in nine other European countries, including England, France, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and Sweden, the article said.