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A comment on Spotify Sued For Patent Infringement Just Weeks After Entering US Market. Parent comment

Re:Spotify Sued For Patent Infringement Just Weeks After Ent... by Ronkdar on Thursday July 28, 2011 @02:38PM (#2818276)
Judges don't grant patents. The US Patent Office does that. Patents this broad are not at all unusual.
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Re:Spotify Sued For Patent Infringement Just Weeks After Ent... by ddw on Thursday July 28, 2011 @02:54PM (#2818351)
Thanks for clarifying, I should look into it more but it's sometimes difficult to follow these legal things.

I know it's not unusual, that's my basic question. I can't imagine anyone reading the patent excerpt in that article and going "oh yeah, Spotify definitely ripped that off." Why are these vague and general patents getting approved?

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Re:Spotify Sued For Patent Infringement Just Weeks After Ent... by mattdeboard on Thursday July 28, 2011 @07:04PM (#2819352)
You should really listen to last week's This American Life, available on podcast.

You'd be horrified to learn that not only are overbroad patents being awarded to people, but also regularly being awarded to multiple people/business entities. Multiple groups holding patents for the same things.

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