Burst.com faces off with Microsoft

Munir Kotadia ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 04 Sep 2003 12:40 BST

Microsoft is being sued by US software developer Burst.com for allegedly stealing patented media transmission technology and using it in Media Player 9. Although Microsoft denies the allegation, the Redmond giant was told by a judge last week to search through back-up tapes and produce any emails that relate to dealings with its former partner.

Richard Lang, founder and chief executive of Burst.com, claims his company grew from nothing into a $200m (£127m) business with hundreds of staff over a period of ten years, and then almost imploded during the dot-com downturn. Burst.com is still trading, but Lang is one of only two full time employees left and is now facing a legal battle with one of the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world.

Q: What is the concept behind your transmission technology?
We had a vision in 1987 of a delivery mechanism -- a way of distributing audio and video over electronic networks. In 1988, we launched the company as a partnership, and by 1990, we were an official corporation and had received £2m in VC investment.

Prior to our technology, the approach to distributing video and audio was the broadcast model -- where you have a television or cable station that simply plays audio or video in real time. This means that if it was a 30 minute programme, it took 30 minutes for that programme to be delivered and 30 minutes to watch it.

By using a number of different components -- including digital compression and storage -- we designed a system that could deliver video in chunks. It would send anything from a couple of minutes worth of video, an entire two-hour programme or anything in between at a very rapid rate. The information would be stored wherever the viewer was and would require either a set top box or a PC.

Q: When did Microsoft get involved?
We spent the following seven years building a portfolio containing 37 patents, nine of which were filed in the US. The balance were in countries including the UK, Japan, Korea, India and Australia.