The lawsuit, which was filed by Burst.com in 2004, claimed that iTunes music store, iTunes software, the iPod devices, and QuickTime streaming products infringed its patents. Apple had responded with a preemptive lawsuit in January 2006 to try and invalidate the patents. This was followed by Burst.com countersuing Apple for infringement by refusing to license four basic patents violated by iPod and iTunes. This last suit was finally settled by both parties.
Apple will also have immunity from potential lawsuits arising from four additional Burst.com’s patents related to digital video recorders. These patents are also yet to be granted to Apple.
Burst.com is a patent licensing company and owns patents covering cached streaming of audio and video. The company won a $60m settlement in 2005 from Microsoft for a patent dispute regarding Windows Media Player’s transmission of music and video.
Source: ComputerWire daily updates
