JPEG patent case settled

According to news.com, Forgent makes a small fortune flogging licences for the JPEG technology it owns. More than 60 companies pay Forgent $110 million in royalties.

However PC makers were unhappy with being involved in these deals and the billion dollar price tag that Forgent wanted and a collection of them took the outfit on.

The PC makers were doing quite well. They managed to get the US Patent and Trademark Office agreed to review the validity of the patent in February and in June, a court limited the scope of the claims emanating from the patent.

There was a danger that if the patent was overturned then Forgent could lose its regular income from the other patents. In many ways the $8 million settlement is more of an attempt to back out of the case with its legal fees and patent rights still intact.

Forgent might be leaving the PC makers alone, but it is currently pursuing claims against cable companies over a patent that it says covers technology inside digital video recorders. Should be a few bob there we would have thought.

So says news.com . µ