Chicago (IL) – The parent company of The Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, Discovery Communications, has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com alleging that some of the copy protection and security features included in both the Kindle and Kindle 2 e-Book readers are in violation of Discovery Communication’s patents.
The lawsuit states Amazon violated Discovery’s patent for “Electronic Book Security and Copyright Protection System”. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. The lawsuit alleges the technology provides for secure content distribution, including both text and graphics, and secure storage for subscribers. Discovery is seeking an unspecified monetary sum as compensation.
“The Kindle and Kindle 2 are important and popular content delivery systems,” said Joseph A. LaSala, Jr., General Counsel of Discovery Communications in a statement. “We believe they infringe our intellectual property rights, and that we are entitled to fair compensation. Legal action is not something Discovery takes lightly. Our tradition as an inventive company has produced considerable intellectual property assets for our shareholders, and today’s infringement litigation is part of our effort to protect and defend those assets.”
The patent, number 7,298,851, was initially filed on September 21, 1999. However, it was not issued to Discovery Communications, Inc. until November 20, 2007.
At this point, Amazon has declined comment.
