U.S. Patent and Trademark Office looking into JPEG Patent

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office looking into JPEG Patent

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are reportedly looking into the JPEG Patent owned by Forgent Networks. The company makes much of their revenues from licensing this technology to software technology companies worldwide who use this format in their applications.

The request to review this patent was originally put forward by the Public Patent Foundation. This foundation is based in New York and work towards exposing the abuses by the owners of patents. These kind of software patents are pretty controversial considering it requires the balancing between the companies who develop the technologies and the companies, which pay to use those technologies.

Forgent acquired Compression Labs was back in 1997 and started asserting the so-called ’672 patent against companies which were using the JPEG format in their software applications. JPEG is one of the most widely used image format around the world and is used comprehensively on the internet.

They have also gone into deals with companies around the world related to the licensing of this patent and earn more than $105 million in revenue in the United States, Europe, and Asia. They also have pending lawsuits against 30 companies in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.