Good News For Blockbuster AND Netflix

You might wonder what would be good news for two lifelong competitors like these two.  Well, as it turns out, they were both getting sued by the same outfit over a possible patent infringement.

As we all–well, as anyone who uses Blockbuster Online and / or Netflix does–well know, they both notify you on the state of your queue via email.  Well, this outfit out in Oklahoma, Media Queue, said that Netflix, Blockbuster Online, and GameFly’s services were violations of their “243″ technology, that notified clients by email on the state of their queue.  Well, GameFly settled out of court.

But Netflix and Blockbuster fought on, and it was declared that any prior engagements among the three firms were, “at best, random and minimal”.  Thus, no real infringement was going on here.

So congrats to the two firms who succeeded, and a side note to Media Queue, guys, come on…they notified you by email about your queue.  Surely you didn’t think you were the only ones working on that.