Facts

Pandora Media, LLC is the largest ad-supported audio entertainment streaming service in the U.S. and a wholly owned subsidiary of Sirius XM Holdings, Inc. Bluebonnet is a Texas limited liability company that owns United States Patent Nos. 9,405,753; No. 9,547,650; and No. 9,779,095. George Aposporos and Aviv Eyal conceived of the patented inventions in early 1999 and reduced their inventions to practice later in 1999. The inventions included a software system for searching, discovering, and playing media through a streaming service. In January 2000, they filed their first provisional patent application. By June 2000, their website Friskit launched its streaming music service that would deploy a playback interface on the user's device that would allow users to interact with the website's robust server-side system to enjoy streaming music. Users could listen to continuous music for hours through "Mood" or "Genre" playlists accessed via drop down selections and personalize their experience by rating a song. The system utilized a tiered networked system that included numerous servers, modules, and a database management component that maintained an organizational data structure to provide streaming media services for playback.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff alleged that defendant infringed three of its patents, Nos. 9,405,753, No. 9,547,650, and No. 9,779,095, each of which described the a computer playback system for generating media playlists based on user ratings and preferences, by making, importing, using, offering for sale, and selling the accused instrumentalities and services. Further, plaintiff maintained that defendant required customers to utilize the accused instrumentalities and services and therefore, benefited from the control and use of the improper services by selling advertisements and subscription fees. Plaintiff contended that defendant was aware of its patents since it had cited the patents as prior art in its earlier patent applications for its streaming services. Finally, plaintiff argued that it has suffered damages as a result of the infringing conduct.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant denied all contentions.

Result

Pandora Media's motion for summary judgment was granted.