James Delahunty
16 Aug 2005 20:16
The company responsible for the WinDVD software, InterVideo, has sued Dell for infringing one of its patents. This particular patent (number 6,765,788) details a "method and apparatus for integrating personal computer and electronic device functions". For example, think of play/pause, rewind and fast forward buttons on a laptop that allow it's DVD drive to act like a regular DVD player. InterVideo yesterday said it had filed a formal complaint with the US District Court of Northern California.
InterVideo believes that Dell added such functionality to many of its products even though the company knew the technology belonged to a third-party. This is not the first case over this patent either; last year InterVideo alleged Acer had infringed the same patent but that case was resolved to the company's satisfaction. InterVideo asked the court to ban Dell from making, importing, marketing and selling devices which infringe the patent.
It also wants the court to make Dell pay the legal costs as well as unspecified "enhanced damages".
Source:
The Register