It Took Spotify Two Weeks to Get Sued

Swedish streaming site gets sued after two weeks on American soil

Spotify, the Sweden-based streaming music service, has been hit with its first lawsuit since debuting in America, BBC News reports. Spotify brought their streaming service to the States for the first time on July 14. Packetvideo filed the court papers in the U.S. and in the Netherlands on July 28, exactly two weeks after the debut. Packetvideo alleges that Spotify's service violates two intellectual property patents they have covering streaming music over the Internet. Spotify released a statement that they were going to contest the claims. The statement also pointed out that every other digital music service would also be in violation of the patents, not just Spotify. Why they chose the newest company in the American market is up for debate. Money doesn't seem to be the issue. Spotify isn't a gold mine. Pandora, its most successful competitor, went public in June and was valued around $2.8 billion. It trades around $16 a share. Pandora has been operating for years. Grooveshark is another company that would likely infringe on Packetvideo's patents. Whether Packetvideo is planning on suing Pandora too, or any other company that offers the same service, remains to be seen.