Breaking - Dolby has just announced that it has filed patent infringement
lawsuits in the United States and Germany against BlackBerry maker Research In
Motion.
The lawsuits seek recovery of financial damages and injunctions to halt sales
of “many RIM products” that Dolby claims infringes its patents.
Founded in 1965 by Ray Dolby, Dolby Laboratories specializes in audio noise
reduction and audio encoding/compression technology.
According to Dolby, RIM infringes patents covering digital audio compression
technologies which allow manufacturers and consumers to provide audio while
using limited amounts of transmission and/or storage space for such audio.
Dolby says its technologies provide the core of HE AAC (short for
‘High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding’), an international standard that it
says is used in a ton of consumer electronics devices such as smartphones,
portable music players and tablets to play back music that has been compressed
to less than 10 percent of its original digital file size.
In a press release, Dolby posits that the Canadian hardware and software maker
employs its patented technologies in its Blackberry handsets and PlayBook
tablet device, without having obtained licenses, adding that “all other major
smartphone makers” have agreed to license the technologies that are the subject
of this litigation.
Dolby recently shared financial results for its second quarter of fiscal 2011,
reporting total revenue of $250 million. Licensing revenue was responsible for
a staggering 86 percent, or roughly $215 million, of that revenue.
“Litigation was regrettably our last resort after RIM declined to pay for the
use of Dolby’s technology,” said Andy Sherman, executive vice president and
general counsel of Dolby. “We have a duty to protect our intellectual property.”
The wording suggests Dolby has been engaged in negotiations with Research In
Motion for a while now, talks which have apparently not materialized in any
patent licensing agreements.
One lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
California. The other, German lawsuit was filed in the District Court of
Mannheim.
We’ve reached out to RIM but haven’t heard back yet. We’ll update as soon as we
learn more.
CrunchBase Information
Dolby
Research In Motion
BlackBerry PlayBook
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eHNcYekSwaw/
Sent with MobileRSS HD
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The
Unique Geek" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek?hl=en.
