Stream Theory has announced that it filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against Exent, Softricity, and AppStream. The maker of technology that powers streaming digital distribution of software claims that those three companies willfully infringed on a patent it was granted in 2002. According to Stream Theory, the patent involves "Method and apparatus to allow remotely located computer programs and/or data to be accessed on a local computer in a secure, time-limited manner, with persistent caching."
In the past, Stream Theory has partnered with Atari, Strategy First, Interplay, and Telltale Games, as well as number of other publishers and developers to distribute their titles online. As of press time, none of the firms reportedly being sued had returned GameSpot's requests for comment.