Media company Discovery Communications filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com on Tuesday, accusing the online retailer's Kindle of infringing its patent on electronic book technology, writes Reuters.

The lawsuit claims that both Amazon's Kindle versions have infringed one or more of the claims on a patent that Discovery founder John Hendricks received in November 2007.

The patent deals with encryption technology for the distribution of digital books. Discovery founder John S. Hendricks claims he invented a secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission, and sale of electronic books.

Amazon presented its first digital reader in November 2007, and launched its new version only last month. The Kindle 2 retails at $359, and is acclaimed by some as the future of e-book reading.

Discovery, known largely for its popular channel on US cable television, is seeking damages and a royalty to compensate it for any future infringement of the patent.

The lawsuit echoes criticism from the publishing industry, which says a text-to-speech function that allows users to listen to their devices avoids paying royalties to authors.

In February Amazon said it would allow the audio function on the new Kindle to be disabled, but asserted the feature was legal.

Also in February, Google and Amazon announced plans to avail more books to mobile devices, substantially increasing the number of e-books available for reading on-the-go.