JPEG Committee hits back at patent claim

By Steve Malone

Posted on 22 Jul 2002 at 11:13

The JPEG Committee is to hit back over claims by US videoconferencing company Forgent and its lawyers that it 'owns' the patent to JPEG's run-length encoding data compression technology.

The Committee is now seeking to prove that 'prior art' exists to the granting of the patent in 1995 and is gathering examples from around the world. Anyone who has any examples to offer should contact The JPEG Committee directly.

The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) Committee has been working for ten years on the development of character coding technologies.

Forgent claims it has acquired the patent to JPEG technology through its subsidiary Compression Labs. The story came to light last week when Sony paid royalties for the use of the JPEG format and Forgent has stated that it is going to pursue other hardware suppliers for the use of the technology. Richard Snyder, chairman and chief executive officer at Forgent has said. 'We are in ongoing discussions with other manufacturers of digital still cameras, printers, scanners and other products that use JPEG technology for licensing opportunities.'