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Patent against JPEG rejected by Patent Office
Nic Rossmüller : June 6th 2006 - 01:00 CET
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 Patent against JPEG rejected by Patent Office : Patent Asserted Against JPEG Standard Rejected: Public Interest Group's Review Results in Broadest Claims of Forgent Networks Patent Being Ruled Invalid In the reexamination proceeding initiated late last year by the Public Patent Foundation, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the broadest claims of the patent Forgent Networks is asserting against the Joint Photographic Experts Group international standard for the electronic sharing of photo-quality images. In its Office Action released yesterday, the Patent Office found that the prior art submitted by Pubpat completely the broadest claims of the patent, U.S. Patent No. 4,698,672.
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 Dan Ravicher about the JPEG Patent
Forgent Networks acquired the '672 Patent through the purchase of Compression Labs, Inc. in 1997 and began aggressively asserting it against the JPEG standard through lawsuits and the media in 2004. The company has the opportunity to respond to the Patent Office's rejection, but third party requests for reexamination, like the one filed by Pubpat, result in having the subject patent either modified or completely revoked roughly 70% of the time. "The Patent Office has agreed with our conclusion that it would have never granted Forgent Networks' '672 patent had it been aware of the prior art that we submitted to them," said Dan Ravicher, Pubpat's Executive Director.
Pattent Office - JPEG Standard
"Making matters worse here is that this new prior art was known by those who filed the application that led to the '672 patent, but none of them told the Patent Office about it, despite their duty to do so." More information about the reexamination the Forgent Networks patent being asserted against the JPEG standard, including a copy of the Patent Office's Office Action rejecting its broadest claims, can be found at Pubpat Activities > Protecting the Public Domain.
About PubPat
The Public Patent Foundation (“PUBPAT”) is a not-for-profit legal services organization that represents the public's interests against the harms caused by the patent system, particularly the harms caused by wrongly issued patents and unsound patent policy. PubPat provides the general public and specific persons or entities otherwise deprived of access to the system governing patents with representation, advocacy and education.
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