Ars Technica reports that Apple is involved in some curious patent cases filed this week in Texas federal district courts
One suit claims that Apple's iTunes Store (among many others) infringes on a patent for what is essentially an online store for music downloads. Another lawsuit claims that Safari, DVD Player, Front Row, and even Mac OS X itself infringe on a number of patents related to adjustable length displays of textual and other data.Apple faces patent suits over iTunes Store, Safari, Mac OS X
The first lawsuit, filed in the patent-friendly Eastern District of Texas, comes from Sharing Sound LLC, which holds the rights to a patent for "distribution of musical products by a web site vendor over the internet." The patent in question describes what is functionally any website you've ever visited to buy a music download, including song previews, a shopping cart, and even an accompanying app to play legally purchased music. The patent targeting Apple has a provision that downloaded songs have a unique identifier included in the file to link the files to a particular purchaser.
