A standards body has said that it believes that a patent held by
a small video conferencing company for JPEG images is not valid.
Forgent Networks announced earlier this month that it is seeking
royalties for the transmission of JPEG images from makers of
browsers, PDAs, digital cameras, phones and scanners.
JPEG is short for the “Joint Photographic Experts Group”. It
comprises experts nominated by national standards bodies and major
companies to work to produce standards for continuous tone image
coding.
The best known standard from JPEG is IS 10918-1, which is the
first of a multi-part set of standards for still image compression.
A basic version of the many features of this standard is what most
people think of as JPEG – and this is where Forgent is claiming a
monopoly right.
A committee of JPEG claims that it has examined Forgent’s patent
and it believes that prior art exists in areas in which the patent
claims to apply – i.e. the technology was in use before the patent
existed.
Accordingly, JPEG is planning to launch a new web site to
establish a “substantial repository of prior art.” The committee
aims to organise the initiative before its next meeting in October
2002.
See: www.jpeg.org
