Intertainer files suit

Video-on-demand company stopped operations in late 2002

By BEN FRITZ

Defunct Internet video-on-demand company Intertainer has filed suit against Apple, Google and Napster, three of the biggest players in video and music downloads, alleging patent infringement.

Intertainer, which tried during the late '90s dot-com boom to build a business letting people watch movies online, stopped operations in late 2002. Since then, it has focused on lawsuits against other digital media companies.

A 2002 antitrust suit against Sony, Time Warner and Universal, in which Intertainer alleged the studios gave favorable terms to Movielink, the VOD venture they formed with MGM and Paramount, was settled in March. Terms weren't disclosed.

New suit alleges Apple's iTunes Store, Google's video service and the Napster musicstore violate an Intertainer patent for digital content management.

All three defendants declined to comment.

Suit was filed in the eastern district of Texas. Though neither plaintiff nor defendants are headquartered in Texas, the eastern district reportedly has become a popular place to file patent infringement suits, due to local procedures that give plaintiffs a higher-than-average success rate.

Though company said when it shut down that it would look to restart operations, Intertainer now operates solely as a patent holding company. In addition to the patent it is currently suing over, it has four others related to digital media that are pending approval.

Numerous other digital music and video providers -- such as Yahoo, AOL and RealNetworks -- use technology similar to the new lawsuit's defendants.

Intertainer CEO Jonathan Taplin declined to comment on whether his company has reached licensing agreements with others in the space, or chose to target just Apple, Google and Napster.

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