From Bernard.Lang@inria.fr Wed, 26 Apr 2000 09:50:13 +0200
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 09:50:13 +0200
From: Bernard Lang Bernard.Lang@inria.fr
Subject: [Patents] [srctran@world.std.com: PATNEWS: IBM upsets UK over patent; Unisys back with GIF; IBM pat cites]


1- patents are no protection against big bullies

2- users switch from GIF to PNG, because of Unisys patents


----- Forwarded message from Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com> -----

Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 21:15:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com>
To: patent-news@world.std.com
Subject: PATNEWS: IBM upsets UK over patent; Unisys back with GIF; IBM pat
    cites
Precedence: list
Reply-To: patent-news@europe.std.com

                                      ====

IBM case sabotages small Devon firm

By Charles Arthur
   Technology Editor
   The Independent (London)

20 April 2000

A small British computer firm with patents on an invention potentially
worth millions is being ripped off by one of the world's biggest companies
and stymied by American courts, an MP claimed yesterday.
                              
Allvoice, a Devon-based company, could even go out of business because it
alleges that IBM has infringed its patents for using voice recognition
technology with computers, while in the US a similar infringement claim
against Dragon Systems has taken more than a year to conclude its
preliminary hearing - which usually takes only a few days.
                                
Allvoice's system means people can talk to their computers, rather than
typing into keyboards, and enter words directly into documents, correct
them, and play back what they actually said.
                                
In Westminster Hall, Patrick Nicholls, Conservative MP for Teignbridge, said
during a short debate that rather than being a multi-million-pound firm,
Allvoice was struggling for its very existence. He blamed this on the
anti-competitive behaviour of certain US companies and the procrastination
of the US judiciary. He told MPs that US firms IBM and Dragon Systems had
been developing their own voice recognition system but it had many faults
and problems which the Allvoice system had managed to iron out.
                                
The US firms invited Allvoice representatives to meet them on the premise
that they were interested in buying the system. But IBM later announced that
they were developing a new voice recognition system based on many of the
Allvoice applications.   
                                
"The way US business has rallied round to destroy Allvoice would make a pack
of sharks look like a group of nuns," Mr Nicholls said.

John Mitchell, managing director of Allvoice, said afterwards: "We started
our patent infringement case against Dragon in February last year. But the
preliminary injunction has been delayed and delayed."

                                   ==========

Some excerpts from the Financial Times article by Fiona Harvey.

"AllVoice has filed a complaint against IBM with the European Commission,
the European Union's Brussels-based executive."

"Patrick Nicholls, MP for Teignbridge in Devon, said the case showed
the difficulty small companies faced in enforcing patents against
multinationals.  Patricia Hewitt, small business minister, said the
trade department would 'determine whether the US was fully compliant
with its obligations to enforce patents' under intellectual property
law."

                              ====================

    --  UNISYS EFFORTS TO FURTHER LICENSE LZW/GIF PATENT CAUSING A STIR


Patent demands may spur Unisys rivals in graphics market

By Evan Hansen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 18, 2000, 12:40 p.m. PT

Unisys is expanding its efforts to license the technology behind the Web's
most popular graphics format, as it continues talks with major Internet
portals to pay for the right to use so-called GIF files.

The company has successfully licensed its technology for years, but Web
developers say it recently has become more aggressive in asserting its GIF
patent, called LZW, targeting Web content companies and charging higher
licensing fees.

Unisys' head patent counsel, Mark Starr, refused to discuss specifics of
his company's licensing deals but confirmed that the company is in
negotiations with Yahoo, Disney's Go.com and other Web companies regarding
potential licensing for the technology.

"This isn't new," he said, noting that the company began looking at Web
content companies in early 1999 and has been in talks with Yahoo for some
time. "We have more than 2,000 licensees for this technology. There's been
no recent shift in who we're enforcing the patent on."

Neither Yahoo nor Disney responded to requests for comment.

Whether there is anything new to Unisys' strategy, content companies in
negotiations with Unisys for the first time may be close to embracing GIF
substitutes, partly because of Unisys' licensing demands.

At least one Unisys licensee already has indicated that it plans to limit
its use of GIFs, adopting a free alternative known as PNG (pronounced
"ping") for distributing graphics files to customers. Accuweather, which
sells meteorological data to news outlets and other organizations, said in
a memo to its customers on Friday that the switch to PNG will take full
effect May 12, although Accuweather will continue to hold the rights to
use GIFs on its own Web site.

"We decided to change because it looks like things are going that way,"
said Brandi Say, the Accuweather customer service representative who
authored the memo.

According to one person familiar with the companies' deal, Unisys had
requested as much as $3.8 million under one licensing scenario that
Accuweather rejected....

See
         http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1713278.html

                              ====================


----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Bernard.Lang@inria.fr             ,_  /\o    \o/    Tel  +33 1 3963 5644
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~lang/  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  Fax  +33 1 3963 5469
            INRIA / B.P. 105 / 78153 Le Chesnay CEDEX / France
         Je n'exprime que mon opinion - I express only my opinion
                 CAGED BEHIND WINDOWS or FREE WITH LINUX




