Technology

You’re not missing anything. There was a period of time where a lot of patents were granted for “basic idea, but on a computer!” The USPTO stopped doing it and these patents, which should have never been issued, have been systematically invalidated, including most of this guy’s. He’s a classic patent troll suing over patents that were then invalidated.

What am I missing?

The patent in question, if it's valid, would have expired several years ago. The fact that it's everyday technology today is pretty normal considering how fast technology advances. Ordinary toilet rolls were also a patented invention and there's nothing in the law that says a patent has to a complicated solution to a problem.

iTunes was the first shipping product that ever actually did what's described in the patent... and the person who ran the iTunes department that "invented" this feature was previously a subcontractor working for the guy who holds the patent - he was literally paid to implement what the patent described and then Apple poached him and he continued the work at his new job without any patent license.

I don't support patents and never will, but if there was ever a case for clear infringement then this is it. It's already been to court and apple was found guilty of patent infringement... only to have an appeals court overturn the decision in pretty questionable circumstances.

The patent was filed in 1999 but wasn't granted until late-2000s. I dunno what US patent law states but I would have thought it's back dated to when it was applied.

But I think this all part of the battle because the US patent office has refused to release internal emails that could shed light on all this.

Something fishy is going on and he's already won some cases.

The courts generally don't like it when you run two identical lawsuits at the same time - it's a massive waste of limited tax payer funded resources. They would've likely postponed a hypothetical amazon case indefinitely until after the lawsuit against Apple had concluded (which hasn't happened yet, it's still in the appeals process).

After his case with Apple is over, if he wins that case, then he can privately talk to Amazon and try to reach a settlement that doesn't involve any court cases.

Hey look — Prior art!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Audio

https://duranduran.com/2017/20-years-ago-duran-durans-electric-barbarella-becomes-the-first-digital-single-download-read-more-20-years-ago-duran-durans-electric-barbarella-becomes-the-first-d/

You can look up Smartflash v. Apple to find plenty of coverage. There's a lot more to this story than just a patent fight.

Racz made his fortune inventing a method of mixing hot and cold water - he created a global company selling taps all over the world and eventually sold it (the patent expired a long time ago, and AFAIK it's now the standard technology used by all tap companies). Perfect example of patents actually working as intended. His next invention and business was supposed to be in the music industry, and he partnered with a company called Gemplus to fill in gaps in his expertise - especially software R&D.

The head of R&D at Gemplus left the company and started working for Apple. Where he built all of the same stuff that he had been working on with Racz. We're talking really fundamental technology here - such as DRM to keep the record labels happy which was obviously required otherwise the whole business wouldn't work at all. Racz had lined up partnerships with major record labels and some of the biggest pop stars in the world and it all collapsed when iTunes came along with all the same stuff.

Short on time but they’re identified early on in this decision:
https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/Smartflash_LLC_v_Apple_Inc_No_20161059_2017_BL_62739_Fed_Cir_Mar_