Internet video patent suit hits Google and Apple

Intertainer plans patent licensing business

Google, Apple and Napster are being sued over their online video businesses by a company that stopped offering internet video years ago. Intertainer holds a patent that it says is being infringed by some of the tech world’s biggest names.

The company now only consists of two people, according to press reports, but it will seek to assert its patent rights in a Texas court after filing an action on 29 December. It had applied for a patent covering internet video distribution, and that was awarded in 2005.

Intertainer was founded in 1996 to distribute films over the internet and won investment from Sony, Microsoft and Intel. It stopped that business in 2002.

The company holds nine patents, and the current action is based on US patent number 6,925,469, which covers the distribution and management of digital media files.

Full story: The Register