The patent, No 4,698,672 (the ‘672 patent), is owned by
Compression Labs Inc (CLI), which applied for it in 1986, but never
pursued royalties. Scheduling software firm Forgent Networks
subsequently acquired Compression Labs and startled the computer
industry in 2002 when it announced that it would be seeking
royalties relating to the JPEG patent.
JPEG is short for the "Joint Photographic Experts Group," which
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.
The company has so far licensed the patent to over 40 different
companies, and has pending litigation against almost 40 more,
including Microsoft.
"Forgent Networks is a classic example of the new and rapidly
growing trend of patent holders that do nothing more than sue
people who make products or services available to the public," said
Dan Ravicher, Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation
(PubPat), which lobbies against the current patent system.
"Unfortunately, the patent system allows for such perverse
behaviour because it cares more about patent holders than it does
the public," he added.
On Wednesday PubPat announced that it had filed a formal request
with the US Patent and Trademark Office to revoke the ‘672 patent,
on the grounds of prior art – that the feature being patented was
already in the public domain.
"CLI is using the '672 patent to harass anyone that implements
the Joint Photographic Experts Group ('JPEG') format," states the
request. "CLI's aggressive assertion of the '672 patent is causing
substantial public harm by threatening this international standard
on which the public relies."
