Discovery Communications, the company behind the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, has filed a patent application for an electronic device that lets people read and buy books -- signaling a possible challenge to Amazon.com's Kindle. The patent filing may explain the patent infringement lawsuit Discovery filed against Amazon earlier this year over Kindle e-book security technology.

The Discovery patent application was originally filed in February but turned up online today. It describes a "viewer for displaying an electronic book and providing for electronic commerce." Here's more from the filing:

In conjunction with viewing an electronic book, a user can view information about products and services, view an on-line electronic catalog, and receive samples of products available for purchase. By entering a purchase request, the user can purchase products or services. In the case of a digital product, the user can download the purchased product directly into the viewer. The viewer also records statistics concerning purchase and information requests in order to recommend related products or services, or for directing particular types of advertisements to the user.

The patent application lists as inventors John Hendricks, Michael Asmussen, and John McCoskey. John Hendricks is Discovery's founder and chairman, who created the Discovery Channel in 1985. Hendricks' inventions form the basis of Discovery's patent infringement case against Amazon.

Discovery Communications filed its lawsuit against Amazon in March, less than a month after Discovery applied for its electronic reader patent. Amazon countersued in May, alleging that Discovery infringed on four of its patents related to search query and recommendation technologies.

Discovery spokeswoman Michelle Russo declined to comment on the patent filing, citing the ongoing litigation with Amazon.

Discovery certainly has its work cut out for it making headway in the electronic book market. Along with Kindle, there's Sony's lineup of electronic readers, a forthcoming Plastic Logic reader, a rumored Apple tablet computer, and a host of other devices on the market (see here, here, and here).

Here are some other images from the Discovery patent filing:

[Via BaltTech]

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