Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Contact:

Jason Schultz
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation

+1 415 436-9333 x112

Theodore C. McCullough
Attorney
Lemaire Patent Law Firm
+1 952 278-3508

EFF Challenges Clear Channel Recording Patent

Illegitimate Patent Locks In Artists and Threatens
Innovators

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
filed a challenge Monday to an illegitimate patent from
Clear Channel Communications. The patent -- for a system
and method of creating digital recordings of live
performances -- locks musical acts into using Clear Channel
technology and blocks innovations by others.

Clear Channel claims that its patent creates a monopoly on
all-in-one technologies that produce post-concert live
recordings on digital media and has threatened to sue
anyone who makes such recordings with a different system.
This has forced bands like the Pixies into using Clear
Channel's proprietary technology, and it hurts investment
and innovation in new systems developed by other companies.

"Clear Channel shouldn't be able to intimidate artists with
bogus intellectual property," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason
Schultz. "We hope the Patent Office will take a hard look
at Clear Channel's patent and agree that it should be
revoked."

The request for reexamination filed with the United States
Patent and Trademark Office shows that a company named
Telex had in fact developed similar technology more than a
year before Clear Channel filed its patent request. EFF,
in conjunction with Theodore C. McCullough of the Lemaire
Patent Law Firm and with the help of students at the
Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic at American
University's Washington College of Law, wants the patent
office to revoke the patent based on this and other
extensive evidence.

"The patent system serves an important public purpose in
our economy," said Schultz. "Keeping illegitimate patents
out of that system helps up-and-coming artists and
entrepreneurs succeed for all of us."

The Clear Channel patent challenge is part of EFF's Patent
Busting Project, aimed at combating the chilling effects
bad patents have on public and consumer interests.
Illegitimate patents currently in effect could prevent you
from building a hobbyist website or even streaming a
wedding video to your friends. The Patent Busting Project
seeks to document the threats and fight back by filing
requests for reexamination against the worst offenders.

For the full reexamination request:
http://www.eff.org/patent/wanted/clearchannel/CC_reexam.pdf

For more on the evidence against Clear Channel:
http://www.eff.org/patent/wanted/patent.php?p=clearchannel

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_02.php#004406

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/


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