Spotify is facing yet another lawsuit…but this time it’s over trademarks and patents.
Today, a lawsuit was filed against Spotify by Post Media Systems LLC. Post Media claim that the streaming service breaches three United States patents.
The alleged infringing trademarks are as follows; US 7069310 B1 – System and method for creating and posting media lists for purposes of subsequent playback, US 7472175 B2 – System for creating and posting media for sharing on a communication network, and US 8725832 B2 – System and method for creating and posting media lists for purposes of subsequent playback.
Shortly after the complaint, a summons was issued to Spotify, which reads…
”A lawsuit has been filed against you. Within 21 days after service of this summons on you (not counting the day you received it) — or 60 days if you are the United States or a United States agency, or an officer or employee of the United States described in Fed. R. Civ. P. 12 (a)(2) or (3) — you must serve on the plaintiff an answer to the attached complaint or a motion under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The answer or motion must be served on the plaintiff or plaintiff’s attorney, whose name and address are: If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.
You also must file your answer or motion with the court.”
At this stage it is unknown whether Spotify will file a cross motion, but DMN presumes that this will be the case.
But, this is not the only infringing lawsuit that Spotify is facing at the moment…
The streaming service already has a lot of their plate, battling two other lawsuits. First, Spotify has been battling a massive combined $150-200 million copyright infringement lawsuit brought forward by David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick. Also, according to legal filings obtained by DMN, a Dutch photographer by the name of Dana Lixenberg is claiming copyright infringement over an image of Notorious B.I.G. within the application.
These lawsuits are inevitably damaging the streaming platform’s reputation as a service, especially on the artist front: after non-stop copyright infringement lawsuits and unpaid royalties, artists may think twice about making their music available on the platform.
Beyond de-valuing their reputation, these lawsuits must be costing the service a lot of money, which potentially could have been invested in the service, its features or content for example.
The post Spotify Faces Another Lawsuit, This Time Over Trademark Infringement appeared first on Digital Music News.