IP Democracy: Weird Patent News from Real Networks

The New York Times’ John Markoff has this piece today about a patent award landed by Real Networks. Real’s CEO and founder Rob Glaser talked to Markoff about the patent, which apparently gives Real Networks some kind of intellectual property right over “intelligent” streaming of video, audio and “other information” over congested networks.

Glaser contends that it’s a “foundation” patent that will allow Real to promote its Helix multimedia servers and that Real doesn’t plan to use the patent to extract payments from direct competitors.

“We’re an operating company and we’re not likely to go after big hairy porcupines,” he said, “but we want our intellectual property to be respected.”

I say: huh? First, what’s the point of having a patent unless you plan to ask for royalties from those who use it? Moreover, how else can you gain “respect” for your intellectual property rights unless you threaten those who you feel infringe upon those rights.

Finally, after all this time, does no one else have a patent on “intelligent” streaming or whatever it is that Real is claiming it has the rights to? Markoff notes that Apple was awarded a similar sounding patent in 1996, but that “It appears the patent office examiners did not consider it in their evaluation of the RealNetworks patent.”

Glaser did tell Markoff he had a “Kafkaesque” time persuading the patent office to give him the patent (his name is listed first on the patent).

For the life of me, I can’t figure out what this news means. Is Real Networks suddenly the king of all things streamed on the Internet? Did the Patent Office make a giant mistake?

Update: Real issued a press release this morning regarding this patent. It doesn’t really shed light on what Real is exactly patenting except to say it covers pretty much everything having to do with streaming media.

The recently-issued patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,985,932, “Click-to-Stream”) covers the core methods used when consumers select links to stream audio-visual media via web browsers and other media players.

Real does say that the work that went into the patent started in 1994, at least two years prior to Apple’s patent.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on April 24, 2006 7:32 AM to IP Democracy