WASHINGTON — Podcasters can now continue to engage in their work without legal threat from a Texas company that said it owned patent rights for the process technology.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in Personal Audio v. Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The EFF stepped in to challenge Personal Audio’s U.S. Patent No. 8,112,504, which is described a “system for disseminating media content representing episodes in a serialized sequence.”
After losing its case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Personal Audio filed a petition for certiorari with the high court.
Monday’s summary disposition makes the Federal Circuit’s decision now final, and patent claims Personal Audio asserted against podcasters are no longer valid.
News of the high court's action is welcome to the adult entertainment industry. There are numerous adult-themed podcast programs on the web.