EFF Challenges Patent On Recording Of Live Music

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

17 February 2006

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Tuesday filed a challenge to an "illegitimate" patent from Clear Channel Communications.

The civil liberties group argued that the patent - which covers a system and method of creating digital recordings of live performances - locks musical acts into using Clear Channel technology and blocks innovations by others.

Clear Channel claims that its patent, which was issued in September 2003, creates a monopoly on all-in-one technologies that produce post-concert live recordings on digital media, and has threatened to sue anyone who makes such recordings with a different system.

This has forced bands into using Clear Channel's proprietary technology, and according to the EFF, hurts investment and innovation in new systems developed by other companies.

"Clear Channel shouldn't be able to intimidate artists with bogus intellectual property," stated EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "We hope the Patent Office will take a hard look at Clear Channel's patent and agree that it should be revoked."

The request for reexamination filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office shows that a company named Telex had in fact developed similar technology more than a year before Clear Channel filed its patent request. The EFF wants the patent office to revoke the patent based on this and other extensive evidence.

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