Apple, Samsung and SanDisk have been sued by
Texas MP3 Technologies which bought the US patent from two Korean
inventors. The patent was originally lodged in 1997, was bought by
Texas MP3 on 15th February of this year, and the suit was filed on
16th February.
The patent makes broad claims, saying that it
covers technology which is a "portable audio device suitable for
reproducing MPEG encoded data includes a plurality of inputs, a
data storage, a display, an audio output, at least one processor
and a battery".
The claim has been filed in a Texas district
court by the company, which operates out of a Texas post office
box. Eastern Texas courts are regarded as being sympathetic to
patent holders and are often the chosen forum for disputes.
The suit claim that the named companies
wilfully violate the patents. Wilful violation carries a stiffer
penalty than simple violation.
The patent was sold by SigmaTel to a patent
licensing company last summer, though it is not clear whether or
not that body was Texas MP3. Chief executive Ron Edgerton explained
the company's rationale last July.
"We made this decision because this patent may
require millions of dollars of legal fees to optimize its value,
and otherwise would have required a significant amount of
SigmaTel’s management attention," he said. "SigmaTel’s customers,
however, will not have to worry about this patent being enforced
against them, as SigmaTel has retained the necessary rights to
protect its customers."
The case has come to light just days after
Microsoft was ordered to pay $1.5 billion in a separate MP3 patent
case. Alcatel-Lucent had claimed that Microsoft's use of MP3
encoding technology violated patents it had long held in the
area.
Microsoft said that a licence it has from
German firm Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft entitled it to incorporate MP3
encoding in its Windows operating system. Alcatel-Lucent claimed
that its Bell Labs subsidiary owns patents on the technology.
