The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) invalidated claims 31-35 of Patent No. 8,112,504.
The “podcasting patent” became big news in 2013, when Personal Audio began demanding licensing fees from podcasters including comedian Adam Carolla and three television networks.
In petitions filed with the PTAB, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued that Personal Audio did not invent anything new before it filed its patent application, and pointed out other people were podcasting for years previously.
“Today is a big victory for the podcasting community” said EFF Staff Attorney Daniel Nazer, who also holds the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. “We’re glad the Patent Office recognized what we all knew: ‘podcasting’ had been around for many years and this company does not own it.”
EFF partnered with attorneys working pro bono and the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society to craft the petition for review with the USPTO.
Comedian Mark Maron appeared happy with the news on Twitter.
