Some in the film industry might say that Hollywood faces no bigger threat than piracy. In recent months, studios have gone as far as suing individual downloaders by tracking ISPs on BitTorrent given to them by service providers. The argument, of course, is that downloading films online hurts total box office revenue, despite evidence to the contrary (Read: X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Desperate to find a way to make downloading stop, however, movie studios are constantly searching for new methods. Turns out that one of those new methods may have actually involved a bit of piracy.

THR reports that a German company called Medien Patent Verwaltung is suing Warner Bros. for pirating their anti-piracy software by stealing their patent. According to the details of the lawsuit, the technology allows films to be uniquely coded so that studios can trace the path back to where the illegal copy was made. MPV showed this software to the studio back in 2003 "under strict confidentiality," but when Warner Bros. began using the software, MPV didn't see a dime. Both patents are available online (MPV's here and WB's here) and the dates show that MPV filed its patent about a month and a half prior to Warner Bros.

I don't know much about patent law, but this doesn't exactly look good for the movie studio. If MPV can present evidence that they showed Warner Bros. the technology in 2003 and the software is similar enough, the German company could be about to stuff its pockets with some green (does that expression work for Euros?). Either way, the studio may face some serious PR problems in the coming months.