The company said that it would expect podcasters to have "a
collaborative relationship" with it.
"The episodic media download industry is still in its infancy,"
said VoloMedia's Murgesh Navar in a blog post. "There will come a
day when all the content on Hulu is available as an episodic
download. Consumers will then have legitimate choices in how they
consume their media: on a downloaded and portable basis, or by
visiting a content aggregation website."
"As the medium matures, one would expect to see new entrants
into the episodic download arena," he said. "The impact of a strong
growing IP portfolio is such that we would expect new entrants into
the podcasting arena to have a collaborative relationship with
VoloMedia, just as do many of the current players."
VoloMedia is an audience tracking and advertising company for
downloadable media that aims to help companies with advertising
campaigns.
The patent, number 7,568,213 at the US Patent and Trademarks
Office (USPTO), protects " a method for providing episodic media,
the method comprising: providing a user with access to a channel
dedicated to episodic media, wherein the episodic media provided
over the channel is pre-defined into one or more episodes by a
remote publisher of the episodic media".
The patent also describes methods of telling users that new
content is available and automatically downloading new files as
they become available.
Navar admitted in his blog post that the patent is 'relatively
broad' in its coverage. He said that the company has applied for 12
patents, and that this was the first that was due to be decided
on.
"It was filed in November 2003, almost a year before the start
of podcasting," he wrote. "This helps underscore the point, that
for nearly six years, VoloMedia has been focused on helping
publishers monetize portable media."
"The patent that issued yesterday helps to tie together and
reinforce the value of the various technologies and services that
VoloMedia has developed to help accomplish this objective," he
said. "VoloMedia's intent is to continue to work collaboratively
with key participants in the industry, leveraging its unique range
of products to further grow and accelerate the market."
Digital rights groups in the US have long protested about the
breadth of some technology-related patents. They argue that patents
for broad inventions or for things that have already been invented
damage others' ability to invent.
An innovative systems was established at the USPTO called Peer
to Patent. It was designed to help patent examiners by allowing
individuals to find prior examples of technology and submit it to
examiners of patents in the hope that no patent would be issued for
pre-existing material.
The programme was not given permission to continue for a third
year.
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