Apple faces patent suits over iTunes Store, Safari, Mac OS X

Apple is involved in some curious patent cases filed this week in Texas federal district courts. One suit claims that Apple’s iTunes Store (among many others) infringes on a patent for what is essentially an online store for music downloads. Another lawsuit claims that Safari, DVD Player, Front Row, and even Mac OS X itself infringe on a number of patents related to adjustable length displays of textual and other data.

The first lawsuit, filed in the patent-friendly Eastern District of Texas, comes from Sharing Sound LLC, which holds the rights to a patent for “distribution of musical products by a web site vendor over the internet.” The patent in question describes what is functionally any website you’ve ever visited to buy a music download, including song previews, a shopping cart, and even an accompanying app to play legally purchased music. The patent targeting Apple has a provision that downloaded songs have a unique identifier included in the file to link the files to a particular purchaser.

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