Cable TV giant and multimedia firm Discovery Communications has sued Amazon.com over its Kindle ebook devices, claiming patent infringement.
Discovery filed suit on March 17 in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. It alleges infringement of a patent filed by the company in September of 1999. Describing an "Electronic Book Security and Copyright Protection System," the patent was awarded in 2007, with Discovery founder John S Hendricks listed among the inventors. "Hendricks' work included inventions of a secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission, and sale of electronic books." It should be "entitled to fair compensation," the company said in a statement.
"The Kindle and Kindle 2 are important and popular content delivery systems," reads a canned statement from Discovery general counsel Joseph A. LaSala Jr. "We believe they infringe our intellectual property rights, and that we are entitled to fair compensation. Amazon released the second version of the Kindle last month. Its previous model was released in November 2007.
Kindle 2 has two gigabytes of memory, allowing it to hold more than 1,500 books, compared with 200 for the original Kindle.
Discovery and the law firm representing the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon declined to comment.
Discovery - which has 1.5 million subscribers to its Discovery Network and Animal Planet, among other channels - is not aiming to stop Amazon from selling the Kindle, but to collect damages and royalties.
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