Yangaroo can't jump the border

Vancouver-based company Destiny Media Technologies, Inc. last week obtained summary judgment for non-infringement of a US patent claim brought by its Canadian competitor Yangaroo, Inc. The disputed patent covered technology for the secure transmission of music and media files to authorized computers in the US by way of file servers located in Canada. Destiny Media developed its Play MPE system, which the recording industry uses for the secure internet distribution of pre-releases to trusted computers at radio stations and other media outlets. Yangaroo’s patent claimed a “method of distributing content” performed on a server. According to Yangaroo, Destiny’s servers in Canada perform the patented process to “manufacture” the music files that were then transmitted into the US.

The case was heard in the Federal Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin, where Judge William C. Greisbach gave summary judgment on 7 June, saying: "the claimed method of the ‘712 patent does not embrace the method of manufacturing the content prior to distributing it".

Destiny opted for the court's "Fast Track” summary judgment procedure to dispose of the case speedily on the ground that Yangaroo's single patent claim could not be asserted against the activities of Destiny's server computers located in Canada and the UK. Relying on NTP, Inc. v Research in Motion, Ltd, No. 3:01CV767 (E.D. Va. August 5, 2003) the judge held that a patent claim over a method of distributing data does not establish liability under US patent law since transmitted data is not a “product” manufactured by the claimed process.

Source: MarketWatch here. Thanks, Bruce Berman, for drawing this to PatLit's attention.