Good news today for iTunes podcasters: Adam Carolla has won in his fight against patent trolls Personal Audio after more than a year of litigation. The outcome likely means that the patent troll will cut its losses with suing other podcasters, something it has been threatening to do with others in the community throughout the case with Carolla.
The news of a settlement today (via the Electronic Frontier Foundation) comes after Personal Audio offered to walk away from the case last month in a press release. Carolla refused at the time and decided to continuing fighting in court, but the exact terms of the settlement ultimately reached between the two parties have not yet been disclosed.
Personal Audio tries to claim that it decided to drop the case after discovering that podcasters were not “making significant money from infringing Personal Audio’s patents,” but it’s pretty clear the company decided to cut its losses after Carolla remained committed to fighting back and paying estimated legal costs of around $1.5 million to fight the case. As pointed out by EFF, the settlement means Carolla won’t have the ability to invalidate the patent in court, but the case as a whole will hopefully prevent Personal Audio from going after other podcasters. I’m sure we’ll be getting all the details straight from Carolla when a quiet period for the case lifts at the end of September.
