[DMCA-Activists] CD-burning Software Prompts Patent Suit

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Pho list)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: pho: CD-burning software prompts patent suit
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:58:43 -0800 (PST)
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This NEWS.COM (http://www.news.com/) story has been sent to you from
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CD-burning software prompts patent suit

By David Becker

http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5124558.html?tag=sas_email

A small storage company says its patent covers basic aspects of technology
for burning CDs. It sues Roxio--and other companies may be next.


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> http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5124558.html?tag=sas_email


CD-burning software prompts patent suit

By David Becker 
December 15, 2003, 2:52 PM PST 


A small California storage company filed a patent suit late Friday against
software maker Roxio and said the dispute will likely expand to cover other
hardware and software companies involved with CD-ROMs. 

Optima Technology filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Central
District of California, claiming that several Roxio products infringe on
Optima's patent for a "recordable CD-ROM accessing system." 

The patent covers software that allows disparate computing systems to access
data stored on a recordable CD, Optima said in a statement. Optima's patent
was infringed in several standards adopted by the Optical Storage Technology
Association (OSTA), which have been incorporated in a number of CD-ROM
hardware and software products, according to the statement. 

"Optima asserts that certain of these industry standards is covered by its
patent, and if a company uses those OSTA standard specifications for
CD-burning software, then they infringe Optima's patent," according to the
statement, released by Optima's law firm, Los Angeles-based Holland &
Knight. "Optima seeks to enforce its patent and to receive damages from any
hardware or software company using their technology, beginning with
Roxio...Optima believes most every company in the CD-burner industry may be
infringing." 

Holland & Knight attorney Robert E. Lyon said action against other companies
would depend on the outcome of the Roxio case. A win for Optima would likely
prompt competitors to seek licensing agreements with Optima, he said. "If
Roxio takes a license, I presume other people will, too," he said. 

Representatives of Roxio and the OSTA did not immediately respond to
requests for comment. 

Roxio's Easy CD Creator software has been one of the most widely used
applications for burning music and data to recordable discs, although the
popularity of the software has waned since such functions were incorporated
in the latest versions of the Windows and Macintosh operating systems.
Roxio's most recent project has been to revive file-swapping service
Naptster as a legal music download service.