When we spoke about the various large players in the technology market, who else should have been included in that market spectrum? Well, recent legal incidents might have us adding the
Discovery Channel to that list. Yes, it is true, the same channel that brings us French-Canadian
wildernessmen eating bugs and
raw fish in the woods and endless hours of
savanna lion copulation footage, is currently suing
Amazon.com for patent infringement for various features that the Kindle possesses.
Apparently, Discovery Communications (the parent company to the discovery channel) has some pretty impressive
IP around
digital content copy protection.
It will be interesting to see how this battle plays out, because who knows what kind of essential IP is being held by various companies that have not been considered technology players due to their inactivity. Perhaps they have the patent, but the bandwidth or networks had not existed to make their ideas reality. As entrepreneurs and larger firms react to the trends that we have discussed in this class, we will have to see if they end up tripping over a lattice of hidden IP traps held by various unknown players.
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Without really studying the Discovery Channel patent, I cannot draw any hard conclusions on who has the upper hand. That said, E-Books seem to be more of a delivery platform change than an invention. It seems that technique for delivering information at this level should not be patentable. Using ink on paper to represent words allowed for great advancement, I am not convinced that having the idea that books could be placed on computers and delivered to other devices through encryption deserves protection. Patents need to give companies implementing ideas protections, not functioning as bets to gain upside if a predicted future presents itself.
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