HD Radio Data Service Innovator Sues iBiquity, iHeartMedia for Patent Infringement

Defendant iHeartMedia uses Impulse Radio’s data services technology without a license and so has infringed an Impulse patent describing a “system and method for generating multimedia accompaniments to broadcast data,” Impulse alleged in an April 8 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The complaint also named iBiquity Digital as a co-defendant, alleging the HD Radio licensor “brazenly represents to broadcasters that it has a license to Impulse’s patented and proprietary technology and the right to sublicense that technology to broadcasters, including iHeartMedia,” as part of its HD Radio “software and services,” when in fact "no such license or right to sublicense exists.” The U.S. patent at issue in the complaint (7,908,172) was granted in March 2011, assigned to Impulse and listed David Corts, Lee Hunter, Paul Signorelli, Terrance Snyder and Bryce Wells as inventors. The data services technology pioneered by Impulse “can take a variety of forms,” including providing album art as well as artist and title information on a radio’s front panel, the complaint said. The technology also enables an “interactive listening experience,” such as the ability to buy music at the “touch of a button” by embedding the radio broadcast with data from a music-selling service, it said. “These innovations enable HD Radio broadcasters to offer a more dynamic and marketable multi-media radio experience.” Impulse and iBiquity share a long cooperative history, even embarking together in September 2002 on an “Extreme Digital Road Show” tour across the U.S. to drum up support for HD Radio, the complaint said. Over the years, the two companies even signed a series of standards agreements, it said. The agreements “explicitly prohibited” iBiquity from using the Impulse technology without Impulse’s “express written consent,” it said. Ibiquity spokesman Joe D'Angelo emailed us Wednesday to decline to comment, citing company policy not to discuss "pending litigation." Representatives of iHeartMedia didn’t respond to queries.