FC: Request for help in European MP3 patent litigation

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 01:57:34 +0200
From: chefren <chefren () pi net>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Sisvel (Philips) sues A-MAX to get paid for MP3 patents

Declan, I've been asked for arguments in the first legal MP3
patent case that I know of and I would be very happy if you could forward 
this request to your Politech readers.


The legal case is between Sisvel, an Italian representative
of Philips, against A-MAX Technology from Hong Kong and directly concerns 
all MP3 decoding for the whole European Union.

http://www.sisvel.it/
http://www.amaxhk.com/

A-MAX and it's distributors bring various MP3 players into
the European market. http://www.amaxhk.com/products/products.htm


The dispute is about four Philips patents:

EP 0 402 973 B1
EP 0 660 540 B1
EP 0 599 824 B1
EP 0 400 755 B1

With worldwide equivalents, see also for abstracts and whole patents:

http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP0402973
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP0660540
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP0599824
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP0400755


The dispute is divided in two legal cases, the hearing for the first case 
concerning the first two patents was held June 26th, the next hearing will 
be the July 23th in The Hague, Netherlands.

The first hearing had some funny moments. After a lengthy
explanation of the Sisvel lawyer one of the judges asked the Sisvel lawyer 
if the patent was more or less mathematics (mathematics cannot be 
patented). An "interesting" reaction of the lawyer followed.

However the whole case isn't funny at all and will have a
big impact on the use of MP3 and lots of comparable formats.

Sisvel demonstrated a modified MP3 file in an A-MAX player and because the 
player decoded the signal accordingly it was considered "proof" the 
patented technology was used.

In the demonstration a signaling bit in a series of MP3 frames was inverted 
and the player simply responded accordingly. Any hardware or software MP3 
player, A-MAX, WinAMP or Real Player would have produced the same decoded 
signal.

In my eyes Philips tried to prove that compatibility was
prohibited. That MP3 code/language, can only be legally decoded/understood 
if you pay them.

During the first hearings to my opinion far to little different arguments 
were used by the A-MAX lawyer.

I am highly interested in any single argument concerning this case. 
Philosophy, prior art, comparable legal cases, other people or companies 
threatened by Sisvel, anything may be of great help to get these patents, 
that threaten free playing of MP3 files, off the map.

I will keep you in touch with the proceedings.

+++chefren

<chefren () pi net>




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