Personal Audio podcast lawsuits ended by Supreme Court rejection

The final nail is in the coffin for a long-time patent troll. Personal Audio had claimed the intellectual property rights to podcasting, launching cases against influential players from the corporate CBS to the individual comedian Adam Carolla to try to collect licensing fees. After a few legal wins, the Electronic Frontier Foundation began countering Personal Audio’s efforts.

Several recent decisions went against Personal Audio, including a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Court upholding a ruling against the company. Most recently, the Supreme Court has rejected Personal Audio’s petition for review. The end result of that decision is that the Personal Audio patent remains invalidated, and it has no grounds to make patent claims against podcasters.