Tech Giants Seek To Invalidate JPEG Patent

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

08 July 2004

A group of technology and computing firms has joined forces to bring a lawsuit against software vendor, Forgent Networks and Motorola's General Instrument Corp. following their attempt earlier this year to secure restitution for infringement of a patent on the JPEG standard of digital image processing.

In two separate patent infringement lawsuits filed in East Texas's District Court, the two firms accused companies such as Agfa, Canon, Dell, Eastman Kodak, Fuji, Macromedia, Xerox, Gateway, IBM, Apple Computer, HP, and Toshiba of infringing their patent on the technology, which is used in relation to the compression and storage of digital images, and is compatible with most computers.

Speaking to the media following the filing of the initial lawsuits, director of investor relations for Forgent, Michael Noonan revealed that the firm had made an attempt to seek licensing agreements with the 31 companies in question, but that negotiations had not been successful.

"We felt at this time further discussions were not productive," he explained, adding: "They forced our hands, and we decided that litigation was the appropriate route."

The technology firms seeking to invalidate the patent have argued that it is unenforceable, and that Forgent and General Instrument are "attempting unlawfully to subvert the JPEG standard and to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in unwarranted profits" from them.

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