Last month Shazam was discovered to be raising a new round of funding from the iFund. And since then Shazam announced a new paid application that is available for download.
The concept behind Shazam is covered by a patent owned by Digimarc according to Bruce Davis, Chairman and CEO of Digimarc.
Digimarc has had patents since 1995 that relate to technology where a device can identify audio and visual content and immediately link it to an associated Internet service. Davis said that they tried to settle with Shazam out of court, but little progress has been made. So a complaint has been filed.
Shazam will have to defend themselves from Digimarc in the U.S. District for the District of Oregon with the Civil Action number 3:09-cv-1355-KI.