Sony, Philips, Mitsubishi sue Dell over patents
WILMINGTON, Del,, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Six owners of patents
related to data compression in video transmission have sued
Dell Computer Corp. <DELL.O> for allegedly installing the
technology in its computers without having a license to do so.
The plaintiffs, who own a combined 44 patents, are France
Telecom <FTE.PA>, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. <6503.T>,
Scientific-Atlanta Inc. <SFA.N>, Sony Corp. <6758.T>, U.S.
Philips Corp. and Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. <6792.T>, according
to papers filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court in
Delaware.
The six companies, together with Columbia University and
the City of New York, have rights to a number of patents
"essential to the practice of the worldwide video compression
standard known as MPEG-2," which includes 380 patents,
according to the documents.
In 1996, the patent owners, who include the six plaintiffs,
formed a limited liability company, MPEG LA, which licenses the
patent portfolio to 330 licensees worldwide. Patents can also
be licensed individually by the owners.
Among the companies holding patent licenses are Apple
Computer Inc. <AAPL.O>, Compaq Computer Corp. <CPQ.N>, and
Hewlett-Packard Co. <HWP.N>
According to the lawsuit, Dell's promotional material
"describes the benefits of its computer products equipped with
DVD (digital video disc) drives, their compatibility with the
MPEG-2 standard and their ability to decode and play DVD
movies."
Dell charges up to $300 more for computers with a DVD drive
and MPEG-2 decoding software or hardware, and charges "several
hundred dollars" for optional features for creating and editing
digital video streams that meet MPEG-2 standards, court papers
say.
Users of MPEG-2 technology can reduce the amount of digital
information required to encode and then decode a video signal
to eliminate certain redundancies.
As an example, the lawsuit cites the 24 frames per second
in a typical motion picture. The MPEG-2 technology can
eliminate frames in which the scene is essentially unchanged,
thus requiring fewer frames to be encoded. That reduces the
volume or rate of data transmission, and allows for storage or
transmission of a video signal that might otherwise be
unavailable.
A spokesman for Dell, a computer maker in Round Rock,
Texas, said he had not seen the lawsuit and was therefore
unable to comment.
The plaintiffs seek a jury trial on their allegations of
infringement against Dell, an injunction against further
alleged infringement, and an award of unspecified
damages.
((Rita Farrell, Wilmington Bureau, 302-658-4620))
REUTERS
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