Microsoft Sued Over JPEG Patent
2005-04-23 07:21:23
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."
In an apparent preemptive strike, Microsoft last Friday sued Forgent subsidiary Compression Labs in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. In the suit, Microsoft asked the court to declare that it is not infringing and invalidate the patent in question, Forgent says in a statement.