Company Sues Hubbard Broadcasting Over Patent For Posting Music Playlists To Radio Websites

Parent Sued

A company incorporated in BELIZE called GLOBAL INTERACTIVE MEDIA, INC. has filed a patent suit against HUBBARD BROADCASTING, INC. in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of ILLINOIS, claiming that features displaying radio music playlists on station websites violate two of its patents.

The complaint, filed WEDNESDAY, alleges that HUBBARD's website for Classic Rock WDRV (THE DRIVE)/CHICAGO violated a patent for "receiving one or more user inquiries from one or more recipients of said at least one broadcast, said one or more inquiries including  broadcast identifier information ... creating a program description file comprising program information related to program material to be broadcast in the future ... communicating the program information into a programmed data processor ... synchronizing said communicated program information with said program material of said at least one broadcast ... using said data programmed data processor to communicate, to the one or more recipients, program information that corresponds to the broadcast identifier information included in said one or more inquiries, wherein at least one of the program description file, the program information, and the synchronized program information is associated with the broadcast identifier information."

A second count alleges that THE DRIVE website infringes a patent for a "method for providing listeners or viewers of a radio or television broadcast with automated information about program material, comprising the steps of: broadcasting at least one radio or television broadcast ... receiving user inquiries from a listener or viewer of said radio or television broadcast ... creating a program description file ... communicating program list information into a programmed data processor ... correlating said program descriptions of program material with said program list information and generating information in a database responsive to only a broadcast identifier... using said programmed data processor to communicate said program description file responsive to said user inquiry."

The plaintiff is asking for a "reasonable royalty" plus interest.

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