Just two weeks after it entered the US, Spotify on Wednesday was hit with a lawsuit (below) alleging that it violated a patent. Twonky’s creator PacketVideo claimed that the streaming music service violated a patent for a “Device for the Distribution of Music in Digital Form.” It insisted that it had told Spotify of the patent in May, two months before Spotify launched, but that Spotify had supposedly ignored the complaint.
The Southern District of California complaint also brought the Luxembourg and UK divisions of Spotify into the complaints.
PacketVideo hopes to both claim triple damages for a “willful” violation and to get a permanent ban on Spotify in the US unless it gets a license and royalties for the patent.
The lawsuit is rare in such lawsuits in coming from a company that has its own productive services directly relevant to the newcomer. Twonky provides media sharing from phones through to other devices, such as a PlayStation 3 or another DLNA-equipped device. Spotify’s service is mostly remote but has a local side through Wi-Fi syncing with Android and iOS devices.
