Tech Company Behind faidr App Secures Key U.S. Patent

The developer of a proprietary AI-powered platform that includes the subscription ad-deletion streaming service for radio branded as faidr has been awarded a U.S. patent for the core technology powering the smartphone app.

The news sent the company’s stock soaring on Monday.

Auddia Inc., which trades on the Nasdaq market as “AUUD,” has been awarded “U.S. Patent 11,935,520” for its faidr-focused technology, which delivers ad-free broadcast radio via streaming audio to paid subscribers.

That news immediately triggered a buying spree for Auddia shares, which finished Monday up $2.11 per share, to $3.54, on highly active trading of 159.3 million shares; average trading volume for Auddia is 393,356 shares.

That’s a welcome upward tick for a company whose shares have been in a free-fall since the third quarter of 2021, when trading was largely over $60 per share and late June 2021 saw a short run-up on share value to $185.

The last year has seen AUUD finish under $11 per share since late June 2023 — after another brief rally that took the stock from $9.50 on June 8 to $30.50 on June 12, only to drop back to $11.25 on June 22.

Thus, while shares were up 144% before the opening bell, there’s a long way to go for Auddia to bring long-term investors back to their initial dollar input level.

Speaking of the patent, Auddia Executive Chairman Jeff Thramann shared, “Although we have believed we were leading the AI space with important and patentable technology when we began the process of training our algorithm to deliver a premium ad-free AM/FM listening experience, there is a big difference between filing a patent application and having the application approved. Issuance of this patent validates our innovation and secures our AI for Audio technology as a proprietary platform we look forward to building upon to drive new innovations in support of additional industry first premium audio listening experiences.”

In addition to an issuance of the patent, Auddia has taken the next step in advancing the provisional patent application it filed last year related to leveraging AI to improve large language model (LLM) prompts and the domain specific knowledge of proprietary GPTs.

Auddia says that in February it converted the previously filed provisional application to a non-provisional application. This conversion initiates the process for the patent office to review the application as the next step in pursuing patent protection, the company said.

And, As Auddia noted last year when filing the provisional application, the non-provisional patent application introduces two significant improvements to the LLM space. First, the company says, the proposed patent claims cover the development of new machine learning algorithms that use the rich data inherent in chat conversations to learn how to optimize prompts to more efficiently extract the best results from LLMs. Second, the patent covers capturing the AI generated prompt improvements and the enriched outputs of the LLMs to create new GPTs with industry specific domain expertise.

Auddia intends to use this technology to create focused domain specific language models to introduce new B2B and B2C audio experiences.

“As the technology landscape continues to accelerate, we continue to evaluate new technologies to determine how we can use them to introduce unique capabilities and experiences for creators and consumers within the audio space,” Auddia CEO Michael Lawless said. “We look forward to continued validation from the USPTO as we continue to innovate and invent.”

The patent comes just days after Auddia Inc. closed on $3.5 million of new financing by selling 1.3 million common shares from its previously announced equity line. And, it arrives roughly one month after the company withdrew a S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission designed to secure financing for the acquisition of Radio FM.