ObjectVideo Drops Patent Infringement Case Against Samsung
RESTON, Va. — Following a year-long legal battle, ObjectVideo (OV) has dropped its patent infringement case with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Samsung Techwin and Samsung Opto-Electronics America.
In July 2011, OV filed a complaint with the ITC against Samsung, Sony and Bosch, claiming that the companies infringed upon OV’s patented technologies. The patents in the suit dealt with video analytic software for security camera systems, such as metadata, tripwire and slip-and-fall technology.
A day before the July 18 ITC trial began, OV filed an unopposed motion to terminate the ITC’s investigation against Samsung. In a statement, Samsung credits the dismissal to “recent setbacks” in OV’s case. In June, an administrative law judge dismissed the 175 patent (video segmentation using statistical pixel modeling) allegations against the video surveillance camera manufacturer. Moreover, on July 6 the Office of Unfair Import Investigations’ staff attorney decided that Samsung did not infringe the remaining patents asserted against it, and that the patents were invalid.
“We are very happy that the staff attorney and now ObjectVideo has apparently realized what we have been saying all along, that our products do not infringe ObjectVideo’s patents,” comments a spokesman of Samsung Techwin’s Intellectual Property Department. “We respect the intellectual property of others, but we do not pay unnecessary license fees simply to avoid litigation. That is why we decided to litigate this case and this outcome vindicates our company principles.”
In response, OV released a statement stating that Samsung received a very limited covenant not to sue on current Samsung products in the U.S. marketplace. The covenant applies to only three of OV’s 47 U.S. and international patents.
“This is a covenant, which covers a very small subset of Samsung products as of June 30, 2011,” OV CEO Raul Fernandez says. “As the case more fully developed, we realized that Samsung actually had very primitive and inaccurate video analytics capabilities. When Samsung legitimately invents — or, inevitably finds it is unable to compete with market leaders who have legitimately invented or licensed our IP [intellectual property] or our software — we would welcome having additional business discussions.”
The announcement comes months after OV signed a patent license agreement with Sony Corp. The video analytics provider has also entered into portfolio-wide global patent licensing agreements with American Dynamics and Vivotek. In March, OV launched an intellectual property amnesty program, which gave qualified video analytic providers a 60-day window to enter into a global, portfolio-wide patent licensing agreement with the company.
OV has continued to seek legal action against Bosch with a public trial that began on July 18. Additionally, the company has filed a separate complaint with the ITC against Pelco alleging that it infringed upon OV’s patented technologies.
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