Ceiva Sues Over Digital Frame Patent

Written on Jun 18, 2008 by Brian and filed under Ceiva, News

Ceiva has filed suit against Frame Media, Inc. and Digital Spectrum Solutions, Inc. for patent infringement. Specifically, it’s patent 6,442,573 filed in December of 1999 that sounds as if it covers any digital picture frame that obtains content remotely via a network of some kind. If that’s the case, and a court interprets the patent as I think it reads, Frame Media and Digital Spectrum might as well get out their checkbooks now. Of course patent law is a bit amorphous and there are often conflicting patents and so on, but even in 1999-era tech lingo, this one sounds pretty clear. It remains to be seen if Ceiva will go after the many other frame companies that leverage networked devices to load photos. A piece of the patent filing follows.

A system for distributing image data comprising: at least one frame device configured to operate according to preferences defined by a user, said at least one frame device comprising a border region modeled to resemble a picture frame designed to circumscribe printed photographs; a user interface coupled to at least one server system via a network wherein said user interface is physically separable from said at least one frame device and configured to obtain image data and said preferences from said user and provide said image data and said preferences to said at least one server system; said at least one server system coupled to said at least one frame device via said network, wherein said at least one server system is configured to periodically relay said image data and said preferences to said at least one frame device when said at least one frame device automatically issues a request for said image data.

[Via socalTech.com]

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