Musicmatch Successfully Challenges Gracenote Patent
from the there-goes-that-patent dept
Someone who prefers to remain anonymous writes “A story at CNET states: “A recent court ruling, which dismissed some patent infringement charges by digital music company Gracenote against Musicmatch, may also have helped clear the financial picture for the acquisition (of Musicmatch by Yahoo).” This is bad news for Gracenote since the company relies almost totally on the threat of legal action to generate sales of its core business, music recognition. Companies such as Musicmatch and Microsoft operate their own music recognition services, and many smaller players would like to do the same, but they have been held in check by the aggressive threat of a patent lawsuit by Gracenote. This loss in court, as well as the two recent squashing of investors in two recent fund raising events by Gracenote, is making the company unattractive to new investors at a critical, capital intensive time in the company’s brief history.”
