April 18, 2019
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As reported by Music Business Worldwide, Excalibur IP is suing Spotify for allegedly infringing four patents. The patents were originally held by Yahoo! and assigned to Excalibur IP in 2016, along with 2,644 other patents. Excalibur IP, LLC is a subsidiary of Altaba, Inc., a holding company formed to sell off former Yahoo! assets.
The complaint, filed recently in the District Court in Delaware , concerns patents that analyze a catalogue of music to deliver personalized streams and recommendations – technology that supports Spotify’s core services. As relief, Excalibur IP seeks, among other things, a declaration of infringement, a permanent injunction, and monetary damages. As of the date of writing this article, Spotify has not commented on the lawsuit.
Spotify is no stranger to lawsuits, as it is frequently sued for patent infringement and copyright infringement and unpaid royalties and licensing fees. In 2017, Spotify settled a class action copyright infringement lawsuit with a group of songwriters for over $40 million. Soon after, in 2018, Spotify settled another copyright infringement lawsuit that had claimed $1.6 billion.
Authors: Sarah Stothart and Christina Liao