Napster faces patent lawsuit

Hey now, Apple isn't the only company that's the subject of a patent suit over its online music store, Napster's just joined that club now, too. A company called SightSound Technologies has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against them, alleging that Napster violated (at least) one of their patents for transmitting digital video and audio signals. Napster says that there's way too much prior art involved for SightSound's patent to be valid, and now the USPTO is re-examining the patents. Stevie J. and co. better not let the schadenfreude get the better of them—if Napster loses this one then SightSound is almost definitely coming after Apple, RealNetworks, and Microsoft next.