Dolby, Research In Motion Settle Patent Dispute >RIMM DLB

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Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) has agreed to obtain a license to Dolby Laboratories' (DLB) advanced audio technologies, ending a legal dispute that began in June when Dolby sued RIM in the U.S. and Germany in connection with the BlackBerry maker's use of those technologies.
Financial terms of the license deal weren't disclosed.


San Franciso-based Dolby, which derives much of its revenue from licensing, said in a statement Monday that "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."
RIM, which is based in Waterloo, Ont., obtained the license through a Dolby unit that licenses patents essential to an international standard known as High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding, or HE AAC, on behalf of multiple essential patent owners. That standard is used in devices such as smartphones and tablets to play back digital music or digitized audio that has been compressed.

 

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RIM, Dolby Settle Patent Dispute for Reported $15 Million

Research in Motion has agreed to pay Dolby a licensing fee for use of its audio compression technology, settling a three-month patent dispute.
"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," Andy Sherman, executive vice president and general counsel of Dolby, said in a statement.


Doby sued the BlackBerry manufacturer in June in the district court of San Francisco. The license covers RIM's longstanding use of the High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC), an audio codec that allows devices to play high-quality audio files at a very low bitrate.


Financial terms weren't disclosed, but according to Bloomberg, Dolby told analysts in a recent earnings call that it was as counting on $15 million in back royalties from RIM in the fourth quarter (or what it calls "the amortization of acquired intangibles for fiscal 2011" in its release).


Dolby gets more than half its revenue from licensing agreements, including deals with Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG, and Nokia. In August, Dolby's shares fell when it announced that Microsoft would not be licensing Dolby's playback technology in Windows 8.


HTC has shifted its reliance somewhat from Dolby by investing $300 million in Beats Audio. HTC said that a line of HTC devices integrated with Beats sound innovations would be launched this fall.