France Telecom, others, sue Compaq over MPEG technology
WILMINGTON. Del., Nov 17 (Reuters) - Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) has been sued by six companies and Columbia University for alleged infringement by Compaq products of a class of patents pivotal to the MPEG-2 video compression standard used to reduce storage space needs in a computer.
The lawsuit was filed late Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Delaware by France Telecom , General Instrument Corp. (NYSE:GIC - news) , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. , Mitsubishi Electric Corp. , U.S. Philips Corp, Victor Co. of Japan Ltd., and Columbia.
The plaintiffs claim Compaq uses the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) technology in its computers and that ``use of the patents is essential to the practice of MPEG-2 technology.''
MPEG-2 makes possible the storage and playing of full-length films on DVD's (digital video disks), digital satellite television broadcasts, and in digital cable television.
The lawsuit asserts that computers, like those sold by Compaq, use the MPEG-2 standard for ``encoding and decoding video signals...(and) in DVD (digital video disk) movies and DVD-ROM media.''
MPEG-2 LA was formed in 1996 by several patent owners as a limited liability company with the authority to sublicense about 300 patents from about 75 patent families worldwide. It has about 250 licensees.
``Compaq has refused to enter into any license with plaintiffs or the license offered by MPEG LA,'' the lawsuit says. It claims that Compaq charges as much as $345 more to include a DVD drive in computers sold on its Web site ``and is infringing the patents in suit.''
Compaq spokesman Arch Currid, reached at the company's Houston, Texas offices said, ``Until we can thoroughly review the case we cannot comment.''
The plaintiffs have asked for a jury trial on their demands that Compaq be barred from further alleged infringement and that if damages are awarded they be tripled for alleged willful infringement. |
