A company no one has ever heard of says it owns a patent for music streaming and playlist creation

Ever hear of Muvox LLC? Me, neither. But I did come across the name in a patent infringement lawsuit against BMG. Last month, the company filed suit in Texas (of course; traditionally, juries there tend to be very sympathetic to plaintiffs in these types of cases) reference a patent that references “music streaming, playlist creation, and streaming architecture.”

Going deeper, the complaint also talks about “a method for selecting a song” using other songs with similar “moods.” At the heart of everything is BMG’s Synch service. The patent goes through “a system and method for making categorized music tracks available to end-user applications.”

And it’s not just BMG. IBM is also being sued for patent infringement.

According to some analysis by MBW, the patent is heled by some company called Apperture Investments LLC who filed for the patent in–wait for it–January 2023. Apperture has about 15 patents around music, streaming, and music selection.

The whole thing is a bit of a mystery, but it could be another case of patent trolling. This happens when a company and their lawyers look for tech that’s already in common use but haven’t been patented. They find loopholes and unpatented parts of tech and then claim the patent as their own. They don’t really invent anything. They just look for tech that’s been left unprotected.

Just another story from the Litigious States of America.