COPYCENSE

“RealNetworks has received a patent on a way to stream multimedia content over the Internet, and the company said last week that it believed the patent would give it leverage as companies rapidly expand their efforts to turn the Internet into a broadcast medium.

“RealNetworks competes against Apple, Adobe, Microsoft and other companies in developing and selling software to media businesses that use the Internet to broadcast audio and video. The patent could allow the company to demand royalty payments from those competitors or from media companies.”

John Markoff. Patent Awarded to RealNetworks May Give It a Competitive Edge. The New York Times. April 24, 2006.

See also:

Stephen Bryant. RealNetworks’ Streaming Media Patent: A Cause for Concern? Publish. April 25, 2006.

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Multimedia Communications System and Method for Providing Audio On Demand to Subscribers (No. 6,985,932). Jan. 10, 2006. (Patent awarded to RealNetworks.)

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Method and Apparatus for Operating A Multicast System on an Unreliable Network (No. 5,561,670). Oct. 1, 1996. (Patent awarded to Apple Computer.)

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.