Muvox LLC sued BMG for alleged patent infringement back in August 2024.
Nearly two years later, the company still appears not to have served BMG with that lawsuit.
Now, a federal judge has given Muvox 14 days to serve the defendant – or watch the case get dismissed.
In an order issued on Tuesday (June 2), which you can read here, Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas noted that Muvox “does not represent that it has served” BMG Rights Management GmbH.
The order, filed in the court’s Marshall division, states that “90 days have passed since filing and that Defendant has not been served”.
Under Rule 4(m) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a court “must dismiss the action without prejudice against that defendant or order that service be made within a specified time” if a defendant is not served within 90 days of a complaint being filed.
“If none of these actions are taken, the Court will dismiss the case pursuant to Rule 4(m) after fourteen (14) days from the date of this Order.”
Rodney Gilstrap, US District Judge
Gilstrap wrote that the court was issuing the order “sua sponte” – meaning on its own initiative, without a request from either side.
The judge has ordered Muvox to do one of three things within 14 days: file a notice that BMG has already been served; serve BMG and file a notice confirming it; or file a notice dismissing the case.
“If none of these actions are taken, the Court will dismiss the case pursuant to Rule 4(m) after fourteen (14) days from the date of this Order,” the order states.
Muvox‘s lawsuit, first covered by MBW in September 2024, centers on a patent titled Music streaming, playlist creation and streaming architecture.
According to the complaint, the patent describes “a method for selecting a song” based on other songs with similar “moods”. Patent-litigation resource RPX, which first reported the suit, said it targets the song-recommendation features of BMG’s Synch service.
In its filing, Muvox described BMG Synch as “a digital platform that allows clients to license music for synchronization purposes”.
An accompanying exhibit referred to the BMG Synch service as “the accused instrumentality”.
The patent cited in the suit was assigned to a company called Aperture Investments, LLC, and listed Jacquelyn Fuzell-Casey as an inventor.
It was filed in January 2023 and granted in February 2024.
Any dismissal would be “without prejudice”, according to the order, which would leave Muvox free to refile the claim.
Muvox filed a separate suit against IBM in the same Texas court on August 21, 2024, accusing the technology firm of infringing the same patent via its Watson AI platform.
BMG is not the first music company to face a patent claim of this kind.
In 2022, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group were sued by Texas-based Blue Spike LLC over four patents related to “encoding and distributing digital content”, in cases tied to their partnership with hi-res audio firm MQA Ltd.Music Business Worldwide
