European digital music service Spotify has re-ignited the U.S. music business since it opened up shop on these shores two weeks ago. Hype and Twitter-based excitement have gone into over-drive as users have sought out valuable Spotify invites for the partly free on-demand music service.
It?s not been an easy ride getting here for Spotify and founder Daniel Ek (pictured, right). For one thing, there had been two years of testy, and presumably expensive, music licensing negotiations with the major record labels. Still, they got here, only to now find that one of the other common distractions of US technology business is threatening to spoil the party: A patent lawsuit.
Spotify was sued by PacketVideo Corp for patent infringement for of its United States Patent No. 5,636,276 entitled ?Device for the Distribution of Music in Digital Form?. The suit was filed at the US District Court, Southern District of California on Wednesday (Case No: ?11CV1659 IEG)
http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2...ith-a-lawsuit/