Frame Media has issued a press release indicating they plan in fighting Ceiva’s claim that Frame Media is infinging on their patent that essentially covers serving images to a digital picture frame over a network of some kind. The patent was issued in 1999 and does appear to be a bit broad by today’s standards.

Frame Media’s CEO Alan Phillips said, “The technology in our FrameChannel service does not infringe on the patent owned by Ceiva Logic. We will defend our service which allows frame owners to program a unique stream of images that is updated dynamically, combining their own photos with dynamic content provided by FrameChannel and its partners.”

Phillips went on to say, “FrameMedia was served a few days ago. We are only at a very early stage of discovery. However, our initial findings suggest not only that Frame Media does not infringe Ceiva Logic’s patent, but that Ceiva Logic’s patent may be invalid. We look forward to presenting our case in U.S. District Court.”

It will likely take many months if not years to see how this plays out. Frame Media is venture-backed, they recently added $3 million to their war chest. Although investors won’t be happy about defending against intellectual property claims with that money, they should be able to see it though to determine the validity of Ceiva’s patent.