Spotify Defeats Patent in Music Recommendation Tech Case

Spotify USA Inc. successfully challenged the validity of a patent related to creating music recommendations based on a user’s environment.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware canceled the patent on March 8 without ruling on infringement claims related to four other patents.

S.I.SV.EL Societa Italiana per lo Sviluppo Dell’elettronica S.p.A. sued Spotify and Rhapsody International Inc. for infringing five patents, including U.S. Patent No. 7,412,202. The ‘202 patent relates to a system for making recommendations for audio and TV programming based on environmental characteristics like geographic location and weather.

The court ruled the patent was invalid because ...