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Forgent Settles JPEG Patent Suits
Forgent Networks has announced the settlement of its digital image compression patent suit for $8M. A much larger amount was originally sought. Forgent claimed the U.S. patent relates to the JPEG standard for image compression. It has stated the patent was worth up to $1B.
Forgent acquired the patent from another company in 1997. Forgent sought licenses from dozens of companies and successfully signed up about 60, achieving around $110M in royalties. However, PC makers refused to sign on and Forgent pursued about 45 companies through a patent infringement suit. During this suit, the USPTO agreed to review the patent and issued a rejection of its broadest claims. The Public Patent Foundation (pubpat.org) filed the re-examination request.
Though the JPEG cases appear closed, Forgent continues to pursue TV and media companies for royalties under its DVR related patent.
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