Company Receives Patent for Podcasting
VoloMedia, a podcast analytics, advertising, and distribution company, just received a patent for “providing episodic media,” including podcasts. According to the company, which filed for the patent in November 2003, U.S. Patent 7,568,213 covers …
Context & Ripple Effects
Podcasting spent 2005–2007 crossing over from hobbyist enclosures into something the music industry itself started engaging with, as the major labels' shift on podcast distribution showed two years ago. VoloMedia sits on the infrastructure side of that shift — analytics, advertising, and distribution — which makes its new patent more than an academic curiosity.
The company says it filed the application in November 2003, meaning the claim was drafted before podcasting became a mainstream medium, yet U.S. Patent 7,568,213 now covers 'providing episodic media,' including podcasts. A broad grant over the medium's core delivery mechanism, held by a commercial distribution vendor rather than a neutral party, puts every podcaster and platform on notice about who controls the format's legal ground floor.
First-order effects
- VoloMedia holds an enforceable claim over episodic media delivery, giving it leverage in negotiations with the networks and advertisers it already serves through its distribution and ad business.
Second-order effects
- Other podcast hosting, analytics, and distribution vendors must assess their own infringement exposure against the 'episodic media' claim, potentially pushing them toward cross-licensing or design-arounds rather than competing purely on features.
Third-order effects
- If patents granted on foundational, openly used media formats become a pattern, podcasting's RSS-based open distribution model faces pressure to consolidate around license holders — and such broad claims invite validity challenges that the industry's open-technology advocates are likely to press.
The trend: Foundational internet media formats are being claimed retroactively by commercial patent-holders, shifting control of open distribution standards toward whoever litigates first.