Discovery slaps Kindle with lawsuit

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 18 Mar 2009 at 08:57

The company behind the Discovery Channel has slapped a lawsuit on Amazon, accusing it of violating a patent on electronic book technology with the Kindle.

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court of Delaware, alleges that the Kindle infringes a patent covering encryption technology for the distribution of digital books received by Discovery founder John Hendricks in November 2007.

Discovery and founder Hendricks "were significant players in the development of digital content and delivery services in the 1990s," the court filing notes. "Hendricks' work included inventions of a secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission and sale of electronic books."

Discovery is seeking damages and a royalty to compensate it "for any future infringement" of the patent.

Amazon launched the second version of its digital eBook reader last month and has already drawn fire from publishers who accuse the company of trying to duck royalty payments with its text-to-speech feature.

The Author's Guild has called the speech function a "significant challenge to the publishing industry."

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit.