Discovery Claims Kindle E-Reader Infringes on Patent

By Evan Mix

Published on March 28, 2009

Discovery Communications, Inc. filed suit against Amazon.com this week, claiming that the online retailer's popular e-reader, the Kindle, infringes on a 2007 patent attributed to Discovery founder John Hendricks. The patent covers a certain type of encryption technology designed to facilitate e-book distribution and prevent piracy.

It is not the first controversy generated by the Kindle, which some publishers claim includes technology that is a strategy to avoid paying author royalties on certain titles. These publishers are concerned by the Kindle's text-to-voice feature, which allows users to listen to print books stored on the Kindle in a manner that resembles an audio book without paying for a separate audio copy of the book.

Discovery, best known for its Discovery Channel on American cable television, seeks unspecified damages for past infringement and a royalty agreement to prevent future patent infringement on the part of Amazon.com. The newest version of the Kindle costs $359 at retail. The company has not commented on whether e-readers from Amazon's competitors might be targets for future litigation.

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