[Ecommerce] Court Grants Dolby Lab. Motions for Summary Judgment:AC-3 Does Not Infringe Lucent's '457 and '938 Patents

[Manon Ress]

http://www.us.design-reuse.com/news/news10217.html

Court Grants Dolby Laboratories' Motions for Summary Judgment Ruling
that AC-3 Does Not Infringe Lucent's '457 and '938 Patents

SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 25, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
(NYSE:DLB) announced today that on April 22, 2005, the US District Court
for the Northern District of California granted Dolby's motions for
summary judgment that Dolby has not infringed, induced others to
infringe, or contributed to the infringement of United States Patent No.
5,341,457 (the "'457 patent") or United States Patent No. 5,627,938 (the
"'938 patent"). The '457 patent and the '938 patent generally involve a
process and means for digitally encoding and decoding audio signals.
Dolby filed these motions as part of an ongoing dispute with Lucent
Technologies, Inc., and Lucent Technologies Guardian I, LLC (together
"Lucent"), in which Dolby contended that Lucent was wrongly asserting
that Dolby licensees using Dolby(R) AC-3 audio compression technology
(also known as Dolby Digital) required licenses to the '457 and '938
patents. In granting summary judgment of noninfringement, the court
found that Lucent had not presented evidence from which a reasonable
fact finder could find that Dolby(R) AC-3 technology infringes either
the '457 or '938 patents. The court's April 22, 2005, ruling resolves
these issues in favor of Dolby.

In May 2001, Dolby filed a lawsuit against Lucent in the United States
District Court seeking a declaration that the '457 and '938 patents are
invalid and that Dolby has not infringed, induced others to infringe, or
contributed to the infringement of any of the claims of these patents.
In August 2002, Lucent filed counterclaims alleging that Dolby has
infringed the two patents at issue directly and by inducing or
contributing to the infringement of those patents by others. Lucent
contended that products manufactured by Dolby licensees incorporating
Dolby(R) AC-3 technology infringe those patents. Lucent sought
injunctive relief and unspecified damages.

The court's April 22, 2005, ruling granting summary judgment of
noninfringement can be appealed to the United States Federal Circuit
Court of Appeals.

The trial, with respect to the remaining aspects of Dolby's lawsuit (in
which Dolby is seeking to invalidate the '457 and '938 patents), is
scheduled to commence on September 9, 2005.

--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367,
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