Discovery Sues Amazon Over Kindle
Silver Spring, Md.-based Discovery Communications Inc.—which owns the Discovery and TLC cable channels, among other media properties—filed a patent infringement suit Tuesday against Amazon.com in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging infringement of a patent issued to Discovery Communications for electronic book technology. Discovery Communications alleges that Amazon's sale of the Kindle and Kindle 2 and its electronic book delivery system infringe U.S. Patent No. 7,298,851, "Electronic Book Security and Copyright Protection System."
A copy of the filing is available on Discovery's Web site: www.DiscoveryCommunications.com.
According to Discovery Communications, the company and its founder and chairman, John S. Hendricks, were significant players in the development of digital content and delivery services in the 1990s. Hendricks' work included inventions of a secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission and sale of electronic books.
"The Kindle and Kindle 2 are important and popular content delivery systems. We believe they infringe our intellectual property rights, and that we are entitled to fair compensation," says Joseph A. LaSala, Jr., general counsel of Discovery Communications. "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."
