| IIIIITHE1IIIII said: I don't know what is more useless; suing companies, or filing patents. |
There's nothing wrong with patents. But there is something wrong with patent trolls. If you look at the patent, it was actually filed on January 31, 2001. Or 22 days after iTunes was released. To me, it seems this guy just saw how things were progressing and filed a patent for the general idea of an online store. Of course, it seems he did nothing with it himself and just waited for 8 years to sue anybody. I guess he picked Sony and Apple because they both make several different products that use the same store, as well as own the store. Though, technically, any store whose products can be used on more than one type of device falls under this category.
Another possibility is this guy wasn't talking about an online store at all. He calls it a Data Vending System and also speaks of distributing analog audio (cassettes and/or records), using card readers for payment, as well as using removable HDDs, CDs/DVDs, and flash drives to obtain the data. I'm wondering if he is actually discribing an actual vending machine that would possibly put into stores so you could pay for and download digital items onto a drive or disc and also store cassettes for purchase. Remember, it wasn't til late '02 when most recording companies started to stop production of audio cassettes.
