the litigation ledger - Industry Trend or Event

Emedia Professional, July, 2000 by Michelle Manafy

RIAA vs. MP3.com

A federal court ruled that MP3.com, Inc. violated copyright law with its creation of the My. MP3.com service, which allows users to store music and then access it via any computer connected to the Internet. U.S. district court justice Jed Rakoff granted a summary judgment on behalf of the labels in their suit, which claimed that the database containing more than 80,000 copyrighted albums amounted to copyright infringement. Heavy fines could be levied against MP3.com; if the company is subject to traditional penalties for copyright violations, fines could start at $1.2 billion. Normally, copyright damages are calculated on a per-infringement basis; if each of the 80,000 albums on My. MP3.com has an average of 10 songs, each having two copyrights, the total could be 1.8 million incidents of infringement. Online music Web site MP3.com, Inc. said it would disable access to major-label songs on its controversial database, while the company continues talks to settle the suit. (http://www.riaa.com; http://www.mp3.com)

Mitsubishi vs. SanDisk

Mitsubishi Denki Col, Ltd, (Mitsubishi Electric) has filed a complaint in Tokyo District Court against SanDisk K K., SanDisk's wholly owned subsidiary in Japan. SanDisk believes that the patents in question are related primarily to the mechanical construction of memory cards built with a separate connector. Mitsubishi asked the court for a preliminary injunction halting the sale of SanDisk CompactFlash and flash ATA memory cards in Japan. (http://www.mitsubishichips.com; http://www.sandisk.com)

EMC and IBM Agree to Settle All Outstanding Litigation

EMC Corporation, IBM Corporation, Data General Patent Holdings LLC, and two former executives of Data General Corporation announced that they have agreed to dismiss all claims and counterclaims in settlement of a longstanding patent dispute involving patent infringement allegations by Data General and IBM that began in 1994, and a dispute arising out of EMC's acquisition of Data General in 1999. In resolving these disputes, EMC and IBM have agreed to extend their patent cross-license agreement, and to abide by a five-year moratorium on patent infringement lawsuits. In addition, IBM is making a payment as part of the deal. (http://www.emc.com; http://www.ibm.com)