Microsoft Sued Over JPEG Patent

By Ian Bell Updated April 25, 2005

“Forgent Networks has added Microsoft to the list of companies it has sued alleging infringement of a patent for a data compression technique it claims is used in the JPEG digital image standard.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, comes after Forgent was unable to negotiate a licensing agreement with the Redmond, Washington-based software maker, says Michael Noonan, director of investor relations at Forgent.

“We want them to pay a reasonable royalty rate for the technology they are using,” Noonan says. “If a company uses JPEG, they are using our patents.””

Forgent is sueing some 31 different companies for patent infringements. So far Sony, Adobe Systems, Macromedia, and Onkyo have agreed to pay license Forgent Networks for the use of the JPEG image standard totalling over $100 million in license revenue.

Read more at PCWorld

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