THE recent decision by an American jury to invalidate four CD system patents
owned by Thomson, which earn the French electronics company at least $40
million a year in royalties, has triggered a series of appeals that could take
years to resolve.
Thomson鈥檚 patents had been considered broad enough to cover all forms of
digital CD, including video discs. But last month, a jury in the US District
Court at Wilmington, Delaware, accepted that MCA and Universal had previously
demonstrated a video disc that worked in a similar way to Thomson鈥檚, so
Thomson鈥檚 patents were not novel (Patents, 31 August 1996, p 21).
But Thomson has petitioned the judge to allow an appeal, arguing that the MCA
disc was 鈥渃rudely formed鈥� and reasonable people would not have come to the same
conclusion as the jury. Disc Manufacturing of Delaware鈥攖he CD manufacturer
that demanded that a jury review the patents鈥攈as filed a counter-petition,
and Thomson has filed counter arguments. Whatever the judge decides, the case
now looks set to go to a federal court.
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