Apple settles patent suit with online movie distributor
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 5, 2008 at 5:04pm
Apple and online movie distributor Intertainer have settled a patent suit over a method of distributing digital entertainment over the Internet, reports SiliconValley.com. Apple and Intertainer on Wednesday asked a federal judge in Marshall, Texas, to throw out the dispute over Intertainer’s patented video-distribution technology.
Terms of the accord weren’t disclosed in the filing. “They came to us with an offer and we thought it was acceptable,” Intertainer Chief Executive Jonathan Taplin told SiliconValley.com. “I am very happy.”
As part of the settlement, Apple got a non-exclusive license to use the technology, he said. Microsoft and Comcast are among companies that previously agreed to license the technology, Taplin added.
Almost a year ago, Apple, Google and Napster were sued by Intertainer and accused of infringing a patent on a way to distribute digital entertainment over the Internet, The movie distributor said the three companies were using the patented technology without permission.
Intertainer, claiming it has suffered irreparable harm, asked for cash compensation and an order to prevent the companies from using its technology. The company said the companies’ infringement was “willful and deliberate,” which, if proved, would allow a judge to as much as triple any damages awarded
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
