IBiquity, Kenwood and TI are Targets in ITC Patent Complaint
IBiquity, Kenwood and Texas Instruments are named in a complaint filed last week at the International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that TI’s “C6000” family of DSP devices sourced from its plants in Malaysia and Taiwan and built into Kenwood HD Radio receivers produced in Japan violate 5 patents on digital processing techniques held by a licensor in Boulder, Colo.
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The complaint seeks an immediate ITC probe into the allegations, and ultimately a permanent exclusion order, barring the importation of the TI and Kenwood products, and a cease-&-desist order permanently blocking their sale. Ordinarily in such so-called 337 cases, the ITC decides within 30 days whether to investigate. David Salemi, iBiquity vp-mktg., told us his company is confident it hasn’t violated intellectual property rights and that “this issue will be resolved expeditiously with no impact to our business operations. We intend to fully cooperate with the Commission’s efforts to bring a prompt resolution of this matter.” Kenwood declined to comment, and TI was unresponsive to our repeated requests for a statement.
The patents date back as far as 1989. The first expires in 2 years, but 2 of the 5 extend to 2013 and a 3rd to 2015. They're held by a company, Biax Corp., that many in the CE industry likely would regard as an obscure licensor of DSP technology -- but not Apple Computer, IBM or Motorola, which Biax dragged into court 3 years ago on allegations, later settled, similar to those made against the HD Radio companies. In the complaint, Biax describes itself as “the successor in interest” to 2 defunct firms, Morrison Computer Corp. and MCC Development Ltd. Biax said it was formed in 1982 and made “substantial” R&D investments in the computer architecture technology protected by its 5 patents, which constitute its entire portfolio. It closed technical operations in 1987 and today is solely in the business of licensing its technology to PC and CE companies, the complaint says.
Neither iBiquity nor Kenwood nor TI is a Biax licensee, the complaint says. With the ITC filing, Biax filed an identical patent infringement suit against the same 3 companies in U.S. Dist. Court, Denver, it said. IBiquity supplies digital modules containing TI’s DR1200 chip to manufacturers of digital radio devices, the complaint says. The DR1200 is based on TI’s C6000 DSP architecture, it says. The iBiquity development team “enables licensees such as TI and Kenwood to get to market faster and more cost-effectively so they can take advantage of the new revenue opportunities available from radio’s transition to digital broadcasting,” the complaint says.
Biax said it has spent significant resources monitoring compliance of its licenses. As a result of that effort, the complaint says, it took Apple, IBM and Motorola to court in 2001 alleging the PowerPC microprocessor produced by IBM and Motorola and used in Apple machines violated 2 of the same patents at issue in its complaint against iBiquity, Kenwood and TI. A settlement was reached in 2003, under which Apple, IBM and Motorola agreed to license Biax’s 5-patent portfolio, the complaint says, but financial terms aren’t disclosed.