HD For Indies

Austin, Texas-based Forgent Networks announced late Thursday that its Compression Labs Inc. subsidiary has filed suit against 31 companies for patent infringement -- among them, Apple. Compression Labs alleges that these companies have infringed its U.S. Patent No. 4,698,672. The patent describes a "coding system for reducing redundancy" that Forgent says is integral in JPEG image compression. [MacCentral]

Mike's Comments: File this one next to the SCO Linux lawsuits. Quite quite possibly frivolous. I don't know the nitty gritty yet, but it's quite striking how all of a sudden smaller companies are trying to exert pressure on larger, ah, shall we say, more profitable companies over possible patent infringement.

Perhaps when this most recent spate is over, maybe maybe MAYBE the government will reform our patent process, and hire more (and more qualified) examiners, etc.