U.S. Patent Office revokes key elements of controversial podcasting patent

The U.S. Patent Office on Friday revoked key elements of a Texas company's patent, which the firm deployed in high-profile legal actions to claim ownership over a method for distributing podcasts and video episodes on the Internet. Personal Audio LLC has drawn criticism for demanding licensing fees under its patent protections, which detractors like podcasters say threatens to undermine the widely used means of placing content online and were not the firm's innovations. The decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office represents a victory for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which in 2013 filed a petition to have elements of the so-called podcasting patent invalidated. It also could bolster media companies such as CBS Corp, which last year lost a $1.3 million judgment when a federal jury in Texas found the broadcaster infringed on Personal Audio's patent because of how CBS had placed television episodes on a website for online viewing.



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