Spotify patents available to the world!

It is a common misconception that patenting has something to do with keeping secrets, while it is actually just the opposite - it is a way of gaining protection for your innovation, on the condition that you publicly disclose it for the world to see.

Even if you don't get the patent, your information will remain publicly available (as far as I know), and if you get the patent, you're still gonna have to pay the yearly fees to maintain the protection. In this sense, patent databases are hardly just lists of licensing obstacles to avoid or purchase, but vast repositories of knowledge on methods and solutions. Repositories which are largely ignored.

My friend Martin who this weekend visited Tallinn notified me that there would be a Spotify patent out there in the names of the people we know there, Ehn, Strigeus et al. Said and done, break out ep.espacenet.com and go search, and anyone can find the either 11-page US or 14-page European patent applications for Spotify. Go to the "Original document" tab, ignore the one page preview and instead choose the "Save Full Document" link, fill in the CAPTCHA and you can download the full PDF.

Other organisations which may have exciting patents to read:

• Skype (JoltId hold their patents)
• OnLive (a cool streaming gaming solution)

(PS. Look at that, IDG.se Computer Sweden picked up this blog post, so I will take the opportunity to suggest my other posts on Spotify, my candid pictures from the Spotify office or other stuff I find cool. I'm @unclecj on twitter)

(PPS. Browsing around for how the Computer Sweden guy picked up on this blog post, he thinks it may have been through @jocke, I find that my other friend @erikstarck had RT'd the patent before me and a fine article about the costs for running Spotify. My insider info - the licensing costs are very relevant, someone has spent a lot of work to be able to keep a music service which is both free and legal alive. And they are doing their best to manage the network costs, while paying attention to that as you grow, your role in the network affects how much you have to pay someone for what)