Another patent lawsuit...JPG format..

[sarettah]

http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1082915639.html

Forgent sues over JPEG technology patent
Posted 04/25/2004 @ 12:53 PM, by Matt Woodward

The ubiquitous JPEG image format that so many of us are familiar with is currently endorsed by the ISO group. Like all technologies endorsed by ISO, they must be royalty-free. Interestingly enough, Forgent Networks holds a patent that applies to part of the JPEG algorithm and is now suing 31 companies over the use of this patent.

Forgent said it believes that a 17-year-old patent it acquired through the purchase of Compression Labs in 1997 can be applied to a specific algorithm in the format. Defendants in the lawsuit include some of the biggest names in the computing industry, from Apple and IBM to Kodak and Xerox -- all of which use JPEG in their products. Forgent contacted each of the companies over the past year and offered them the chance to license the technology, said Forgent spokesman Michael Noonan. But none accepted, he said.

As terrible as all of this sounds, there are a few good things that may prevent all of this nastiness from happening. First, the patent is 17+ years old and is set to expire around October 2006. While that may seem like a long time to wait, many will recall that Unisys/Compuserve pulled a similar stunt in the mid-90's with the licensing of the LZW algorithm for the GIF format (whose patent recently expired in June 2003.)

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[SykkBoy]

Wonder how many companies that settled with ACACIA will be contacted from these people...
looks like there will be a lot more "business decisions" to come....

[Mike AI]

How long do patents stay in existence??

[chodadog]

Originally posted by Mike AI@Apr 25 2004, 06:39 PM
How long do patents stay in existence??

I believe it's 20 years. But i think patents can be extended for certain reasons. But yes, this one is obviously 20 years, 'cause it's 17 years old already, and expiring in 2006.

[DrGuile]

.png anyone?

[Mike AI]

I remember there was something similiar with compurserve and .GIF files. I do not think that patent went to far.

[gonzo]

Originally posted by Mike AI@Apr 26 2004, 09:01 AM
I remember there was something similiar with compurserve and .GIF files. I do not think that patent went to far.

It was dismissed as a bullshit lawsuit. They went after all the sysops...that what a webmaster was called in dial up days. Specifically those of us that had gifs on our websites....who do you think jpg got a start?

[LadyLaw]

Forgent boasts they've squeezed $90 million in licensing fees from 30 different companies over the last two years. $16 million alone came from the licensing fee Sony paid.

$90 million is quite a war chest to take on the big boys now.