Discovery Communications (yes, that Discovery) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon over the Kindle and Kindle 2, alleging patent infringement. They cite a patent granted in 2007 (though it sounds like it was in the works as early as the 1990s, per Paid Content), which covers all sorts of alternative delivery methods for digital goods — video and books. Near as I can tell from perusing the patent, the relevant diagrams start on page 21. That page contains the diagram below, which quite clearly describes an ebook reader, the method for selecting a book and turning pages, delivering the display, and so forth.

Page 22 goes on to diagram the method for choosing and purchasing an ebook, and page 23 pretty clearly sketches out the controls for an ebook reader. There’s a sketch of a library concept, books on your “shelf,” suggestions, and so forth. Interestingly, Discovery isn’t asking for an injunction or a large payout or some other headline-grabbing recompense. They want a ruling in their favor, attorneys’ fees, and an ongoing royalty — kind of what you’d expect a company to ask for if they legitimately believed their patent was being infringed and they should simply get paid a license fee.

It all seems fairly reasonable, although it leads me to wonder, first, why they haven’t sued Sony over its Reader, and second, why it irks me so much to see a picture diagramming how to read a book electronically along with a claim that such a thing is an “ownable” idea. Still, I’m not sure if Amazon’s going to get out of this one. We’ll be watching.

Filed under: News, Amazon, Kindle, Kindle 2, reading