Pay up! 
(you get the picture; whatever happened to that hyperlink lawsuit?)
[quoteurl=http://www.theregus.com/content/4/25711.html]No more JPEGs - ISO to withdraw image standard
By Andrew Orlowski in London
Posted: 07/23/2002 at 11:38 EST
The ISO standards body will take the unprecedented step of withdrawing the JPEG image format as a formal standard if Forgent Networks, a small Texan company, continues to demand royalties on a seventeen-year old patent.
The Register has spoken to representatives of both the JPEG committee and Forgent Networks this week.
According to Richard Clark, JPEG committee member and JPEG.org webmaster, Forgent's royalty grab - coming after two decades of royalty-free use - means that ISO is obliged to withdraw the specification.
"Under ISO terms, formally you can only have a standard you can implement on free or RAND terms. "Reasonable and non discriminatory (RAND) terms are typically published, and the same for everyone. It's clear that Forgent's claims are not RAND. $15 million doesn't sound like free to me, and Forgent is not publishing the terms of their licensing.
"ISO will withdraw the standard: JPEG will be no more," he told us. However, ISO itself cannot formally take a stance on the patent, he added.
"JPEG have traditionally tried to make it available for free; there is no JPEG LA, like the MPEG LA," he pointed out.
"Our current assumption is that the patent is not valid," said Clark. However Clark says that since the patent becomes invalid in 2004 (under the old rules, seventeen years after filing, rather than twenty years after a grant) there is little incentive for manufacturers to bow to Forgent's terms.
A spokesperson for Forgent declined to rule out litigating against manufacturers who decline to pay Forgent royalties on the claim. [/quoteurl]
(you get the picture; whatever happened to that hyperlink lawsuit?)[quoteurl=http://www.theregus.com/content/4/25711.html]No more JPEGs - ISO to withdraw image standard
By Andrew Orlowski in London
Posted: 07/23/2002 at 11:38 EST
The ISO standards body will take the unprecedented step of withdrawing the JPEG image format as a formal standard if Forgent Networks, a small Texan company, continues to demand royalties on a seventeen-year old patent.
The Register has spoken to representatives of both the JPEG committee and Forgent Networks this week.
According to Richard Clark, JPEG committee member and JPEG.org webmaster, Forgent's royalty grab - coming after two decades of royalty-free use - means that ISO is obliged to withdraw the specification.
"Under ISO terms, formally you can only have a standard you can implement on free or RAND terms. "Reasonable and non discriminatory (RAND) terms are typically published, and the same for everyone. It's clear that Forgent's claims are not RAND. $15 million doesn't sound like free to me, and Forgent is not publishing the terms of their licensing.
"ISO will withdraw the standard: JPEG will be no more," he told us. However, ISO itself cannot formally take a stance on the patent, he added.
"JPEG have traditionally tried to make it available for free; there is no JPEG LA, like the MPEG LA," he pointed out.
"Our current assumption is that the patent is not valid," said Clark. However Clark says that since the patent becomes invalid in 2004 (under the old rules, seventeen years after filing, rather than twenty years after a grant) there is little incentive for manufacturers to bow to Forgent's terms.
A spokesperson for Forgent declined to rule out litigating against manufacturers who decline to pay Forgent royalties on the claim. [/quoteurl]