MP3 Players under fire in US and European courtrooms
by:
Paolo d'Amato
ALEXANDRIA, Va. & TURIN, Italy - Oct., 2005 - Audio MPEG, Inc. and Sisvel, S.p.A. announced that Thomson S.A. and a number of its subsidiaries have been sued in the United States and Europe for infringement of several MPEG Audio patents by its MP3 players and digital set-top boxes. This patented technology was developed and is owned by France Telecom, TDF (Telediffusion De France), Philips, and IRT (Institut fur Rundfunktechnik GmbH). The patents are essential to the MPEG audio compression standard used worldwide in MP3 players, TV set top boxes, digital television broadcasting, and an increasing number of consumer electronics products.
The lawsuits were filed by Sisvel S.p.A. and Audio MPEG, Inc., who have the right to license the patents. Litigations for patent infringement against Thomson are now pending and progressing in Alexandria - Virginia, Mannheim - Germany, and Milan - Italy. In this process, thousands of Thomson MP3 products have been detained by the customs authorities in Germany and continue to be detained by customs following a preliminary injunction issued by the Mannheim Court in Germany.
According to the complaints, Thomson markets and sells MP3 players, TV set top boxes, DVD players, and CD players using MPEG audio compression covered by the patents of France Telecom, TDF, Philips, and IRT, without a current license to practice those inventions. Over 250 companies are licensed under these patents and are paying royalties. Until recently, Thomson was also licensed, but failed to renew their license in 2005.
The lawsuits seek royalties for past infringement, punitive damages for willful infringement, attorney’s fees, and injunctions to permanently prohibit Thomson from selling MP3 players, TV set top boxes, DVD players, and CD players using MPEG audio compression.
"By refusing to renew their license under the MPEG Audio patents, Thomson has ignored its duty to respect intellectual property of third parties. This led to the seizure of its products by the Customs Authorities and made lawsuits necessary in both the United States and Europe," said Gen. Richard I. Neal, President of Audio MPEG, Inc. "Thomson's failure to take a license is not only unfair to the owners and the inventors of the patents, whose efforts and research have made this technology possible, but also to the over 250 competitors of Thomson who are meeting their intellectual property obligations as licensees under these patents. Our actions both in the United States and overseas are all about accountability and responsibility."
According to John Paul, a partner in the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, "The US litigation against Thomson is pending in one of the fastest moving Federal trial courts in the United States, a court known as the "rocket docket." Litigation in the US is focused on getting all of the facts out in the open and that process consumes a tremendous amount of time, energy, and expense. In the rocket docket the consumption of these resources is even more intense because the court requires that the litigation must be completed much faster than in other courts."
Who are Sisvel and Audio MPEG?
Società Italiana per lo Sviluppo dell'Elettronica S.p.A (Sisvel) is a patent management company that has become a leader in its field with offices in Turin, Milan, and Hong Kong. It has the rights to license a number of patent portfolios, including the non-US patents in a portfolio relating to MPEG audio compression. Originally established in 1982 as a joint venture by the Italian television producers, it later acquired the entire patent portfolio of Indesit and conducted a number of successful licensing programs in various fields of consumer electronics.
Audio MPEG, Inc. is a patent management company, located in Alexandria, Virginia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sisvel and has the rights to license the US patents in a portfolio relating to MPEG audio compression.
The MP3 movement started out with a huge audience of music enthusiasts
on the internet. The MP3 digital music format has had, and will continue
to have, a huge impart on how people, gather, listen to and share music.
The MP3 format is a compression system for digital music that helps
reduce the size of a digitized song without disturbing the sound quality.
Digital music is converted to MP3 format and made available for use,
usually via the web. MP3 files can be downloaded onto your computer from
the internet and special software, either commercial or freeware. Using
your computer and software you can convert digital music from a CD into
MP3 format.
MP3 files can be played in three different ways:
They can be played directly onto your computer.
They can be decompressed and recorded onto a CD.
These files can be played on a portable MP3 player.
The advantage of MP3 players is that they are small, lightweight and
rugged. They are a great way to carry your MP3 files with you!
With a portable MP3 player, a personal computer, and the appropriate
software, you can do the following:
Obtain free or low-cost music from the web.
Create your own mix of music by downloading MP3 files from the web
and converting the tracks from CDs.
Listen to near-CD quality music wherever you go.
Listen to more music (up to 10 hours' worth).
If you want to convert your songs from your CDs into MP3 files, you can
use ripper and encoder software. A ripper copies a song's file from the CD
onto your hard disk. The encoder compresses the song into the MP3 format.
By encoding songs, you can play them on your computer or take them with
you on your MP3 player. The ripper and encoder software may come with your
MP3 player.
The specific instructions will vary with the individual software
programs, but the following steps will definitely take place:
Place the CD from which you want to convert songs into your drive.
Select the track(s) that you want to convert to MP3 format.
Convert the selected track(s).
Copy the new MP3 files on to your computer's hard disk.
Now you are ready to download these MP3 files into your portable MP3
player.
Once you have MP3 files on your computer, you can use the software that
came with your MP3 player to download the files into your MP3 player.
Again, the specific instructions will vary depending upon your software
program and player, but you will:
Create a playlist from your MP3 files.
Plug the player into your computer's parallel of USB port.
Transfer the MP3 files according to the instructions.
Once you have downloaded the MP3 files into your portable MP3 player,
you are ready to take your music anywhere. Most MP3 players are small,
lightweight, and solid-state. Because most players are solid-state, there
are no moving parts to break down or skip, so the sound quality is
uninterrupted regardless of your physical activity. MP3 players are
equipped with various types of headphones or earpieces.
Portable MP3 players can play music longer than a portable CD player.
The length of play for a CD player is about 74 minutes, the length of one
CD. However, the length of play for an MP3 player depends upon its memory
capacity, which can be upgraded on some models. A standard MP3 player can
play for about half an hour (32 MB) to a few weeks (40 GB)! Some models
can be upgraded with additional memory devices.
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