A UK patents court has ruled that the European “Freeny” patent, which covers the downloading and recording of information such as music, news articles and films from a computer onto a tangible object such as a CD or a sheet of paper, is invalid. The Patents County Court also dismissed infringement actions brought by the patent holder, E-Data, against image licensing firms Getty Images and Corbis.

The court also found that the patent itself was invalid because it was anticipated by, or made obvious by an earlier US patent…

Although the US patent expired in 2003, and the European patent is due to expire this year, E-Data has been aggressively suing for past violations of the patent.