By Ashley Willis
RESTON, Va. — After months of litigation, Sony Corp. has signed a patent license agreement with video analytics provider ObjectVideo (OV).
OV filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Sony, Samsung and Bosch in July 2011, alleging that the companies infringed upon OV's patented technologies. As a result of the agreement, OV has asked ITC to terminate its investigation against Sony. Additionally, the two companies have settled all outstanding claims.
"For us, it's recognition by another global leader in the security space that we have very strong patents around video analytics," OV CEO Raul Fernandez tells SSI. "It's an acknowledgement that our portfolio is valuable enough to enter into a licensing agreement."
The Sony announcement comes a week after American Dynamics, a Tyco Security Products company, signed a global patent licensing agreement with OV. The agreement will allow American Dynamics access to OV's portfolio of video analytics patents, as American Dynamics develops its own video analytics software and hardware products.
"We're encouraged by this deal with Tyco," Fernandez says. "We're currently in confidential talks with other companies that have reached out to us to begin negotiating licensing arrangements without the need to go through litigation."
Signing the agreement helps American Dynamics avoid any possible legal matters down the road, according to Warren Brown, vice president of product management, Tyco Security Products.
"As part of our pre-launch process, it was important to ensure that the growth we expect from these products would not be negatively affected by legal issues," he says. "This agreement with OV gives us that certainty, allowing us to focus on the more important tasks of building great products that delight our customers."
Although OV is still engaged in the legal process with Bosch and Samsung, Fernandez says the goal is simply to gain proper compensation, not put those companies out of business.
"We do not want to keep companies from bringing products to the market," he says. "We just want to get a fair licensing arrangement in place, if they are in fact producing products that infringes on our patents. We're taking an opportunity to show companies our software offering. Ideally, we not only license the patents, but we are also licensing the software to many of those interested. It's a holistic program; one does help the other."
Ashley Willis is associate editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. She can be reached at (310) 533-2419.
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