SightSound Technologies has filed a legal motion, attempting to close down music download service Napster. SightSound had already filed a patent infringement lawsuit in October against Napster. The company owns several patents on the electronic sale of digital audio and video files. UK news source The Register reports that the two companies were close to settling out of court, but negotiations broke off.

"This lawsuit is the regrettable outcome of a long process that could have been resolved amicably," said SightSound CEO Scott Sander. "It is surprising that Napster has taken this road given that it seems to have been working to restore its brand value."

The Register says that SightSound's patents appear to a cover a very broad range of common internet business practices, though their patents have held up in court. The company settled an infringement case last February against N2K and CDNow for over $3 million.

SightSound claims that Napster is also working on distributing video content online as well, though they have solely been a music download company thus far.