The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office granted Amazon a broad patent that covers a “secondary market for digital objects,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. “According to the text of the patent, which Amazon first applied for in May 2009, digital objects not only include e-books, but also ‘audio, video, computer applications, etc.’ that are purchased from an original vendor.” Will a new market for used digital content have legal implications?

“When the user no longer desires to retain the right to access the now-used digital content, the user may move the used digital content to another user’s personalized data store when permissible and the used digital content is deleted from the originating user’s personalized data store,” reads the patent.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is more or less the “same model that’s now under a legal cloud in an ongoing lawsuit between ReDigi and the record labels.”

ReDigi got its start in 2011 by allowing users to buy and sell “used” digital music files originally purchased on iTunes. But record companies sued for copyright infringement.

Advocates of the ReDigi and Amazon second-hand digital goods model believe it is legal under the “first sale doctrine.”

“This part of copyright law has generally been understood to allow those who have purchased copies of movies, songs and other creative works to re-sell these goods without the authority of the original copyright owner — although it’s an area of the law that will soon be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court as well as in the pending ReDigi case,” explains the article.

While it’s unlikely Hollywood will take kindly to Amazon’s new patent, the article also notes that “it’s possible that Amazon doesn’t take ReDigi’s view of how the first sale doctrine applies to digital goods and is only reserving its ability to negotiate for consumer flexibility — the same way that Apple’s iTunes has gained more abilities over the years through dealmaking.”