Dolby drops law suit, licenses audio technology to RIM

Audio technology major Dolby Laboratories has dropped its law suit against Research in Motion (RIM) for unauthorised use of its audio technology and instead entered into a licensing deal with the smartphone maker, allowing it use Dolby's patented technologies in the Blackberry smartphones.
 
"We are pleased to welcome RIM into Dolby's family of mobile technology licensees. We believe in and will continue to protect the value of our intellectual property," Dolby executive vice president and general counsel Andy Sherman said in a statement.
 
Dolby subsidiary Via Licensing Corporation issued the licence to RIM for use of the High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE AAC) international standards on behalf of multiple essential patent owners, the statement noted.
 
Dolby's patented audio compression technologies allow manufacturers and consumers to provide and enjoy high quality audio while using extremely limited amounts of transmission and/or storage space for such audio, such as in the case of mobile phones.
    
RIM's Blackberry smartphones and Playbook tablet devices employ HE AAC technologies, which enables highly efficient digital audio compression, letting manufacturers provide high quality audio while allowing mobile phone users enjoy high quality audio under extremely limited amounts of transmission and/or storage space.    

On 15 June, Dolby had filed law suits against RIM in the US district court in San Fransisco and in Mannheim district court in Mannheim, Germany, alleging that RIM's use of Dolby's audio technologies was without a licensing agreement and payment of royalties.

Via Licensing Corporation develops and administers licensing programmes for mandated, de facto, and emerging standards on behalf of technology companies in the audio, broadcast, wireless, and automotive markets.

Dolby Laboratories is a recognised innovator in audio entertainment. Established by Ray Dolby, the company first developed noise reduction systems to improve recorded sound quality.

Beginning with Dolby noise reduction, a form of audio compression and expansion that reduces background hiss in tape recording, Dolby Laboratories has developed many groundbreaking technologies, advancing the science of audio reproduction.

Dolby manufactures professional audio products and licenses innovative technologies for consumer applications.