JPEGs and Laches

Yesterday a small computer company said that it holds a patent on the JPEG compression format used widely for Web-based images. Forgent Networks, which acquired Compression Labs in 1997, sued 31 major computer manuacturers for patent infringement, claiming they all violate a 1987 patent issued to Compression.

This is absurd. Neither Forgent nor Compression invented the JPEG image compression format. The technology (short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the group which developed it) is in the public domain and is one of two standards for Web graphics. Having waited seven years -- and a full 17 years after the patent was issued -- before asserting any claim of infringement, it seems ludicrous that Forgent should be able to step in at the last moment to muck everything up.

Under U.S. law, the equitable doctrine of laches holds that rights can be waived if not asserted promptly. (Defined as "neglecting to do what should or could have been done to assert a claim or right for an unreasonable and unjustified time causing disadvantage to another.") Simply put, if you "sit on your rights," you lose them. It' also possible that the Federal Trade Commission may find that Compression misled the Intenet task force that originally standardized JPEG by not revealing its patent claims, which could force open licensing as a remedy for anticompeitive patent misuse in the standards process.

But of course, it will probably turn out to be less expensive for Apple, Adobe, Dell and the other defendants to settle than to take this case to its logical conclusion. Sony has already paid $16 million in licensing fees. So little Forgent will profit handsomely from an old patent they inadvertently discovered lying around, and everyone who uses the Web will pay a little more as a result.

 Posted by glenn