No Patent For Music Royalty Technology

In re Scott P. Schreer, No. 2012-1564 (Fed. Cir. May 21, 2013).

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Board of Patent Appeals decision that "the claims would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention..."  The patent application sought to cure problems relating to the "public performance" right of copyright holders by claiming a method of compensating the copyright holders.  "Generally speaking, the claimed method method consists of embedding identification information in an audio file, broadcasting the audio file in a public broadcast, receiving the audio file by a monitoring station, correlating the identification information to a copyright holder, and then compensating the copyright holder."

Class Action Brought Against eMusic

Dabaghian v. eMusic.com, No. 651794/2013 (Sup. Ct., N.Y. Co. filed 5/20/2013).

Plaintiff brought a class action for breach of contract, breach of warranty and violations of N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law.  Plaintiff alleges that eMusic sells music download cards that represent that a specific number of songs can be purchased for a fixed price.  Plaintiff allegedly purchased such a card that advertised 30 songs for $15.  However, plaintiff allegedly was only able to download 16 songs before the card was depleted.  Plaintiff alelges that eMusic failed to disclose it had switched to a monetary based credit system where each song is individually priced.  Under this system, a song may cost 89 cents, and allegedly only rarely costs 50 cents.  Accordingly, Plaintiff alleges it is impossible to purchase 30 songs for $15.