Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Amazon Sued By Discovery Communications Over Kindle

Discovery Communications, the owner of the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, and other cable channels, said Tuesday that it has filed a patent infringement suite against Amazon.com. Discovery said that it filed the suit in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, saying that Amazon has infringed on a patent through its sale of its Kindle and Kindle 2 products. Discovery said the patent in question is U.S. Patent Number 7,298,851, "Electronic Book Security and Copyright Protection System, explaining that the patent--whose inventors include John S. Hendricks--covers a secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission, and sale of electronic books. Discovery said in a statement that it believes that Amazon infringes on its intellectual property rights, "that we are entitled to fair compensation." Discovery said it has hired on legal firms Morrison & Foerster and Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor in the case against Amazon.