Forgent Sues 15 Companies for Infringement of Digital Video Recording Patent
AUSTIN, TX, Jul 14, 2005 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Forgent Networks (NASDAQ: FORG) announced today that it has initiated litigation against fifteen companies for infringement of United States Patent No. 6,285,746 (the '746 Patent) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division. Forgent has retained Godwin Gruber LLP ("Godwin"), a large trial and appellate firm with offices in Dallas and Houston, and The Roth Law Firm, of Marshall Texas, to represent it in the litigation. As part of the representation agreements with both Godwin and Roth, Forgent will retain up to 60% of all licensing revenue and up to 60% of all litigation proceeds from the '746 Patent after expenses.
The defendants include: Cable One, Inc. a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) (NASDAQ: CMCSK), Cox Communications, Inc. a subsidiary of family owned Cox Enterprises, Inc., EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (NYSE: DTV), Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), and their respective subsidiaries.
"This is a natural expansion of the intellectual property program, however, our objective remains the same; to protect our intellectual property assets from infringement, while extracting value from those assets thus maximizing shareholder returns," said Richard Snyder, chairman and CEO of Forgent. " We believe we will prevail in this action as the '746 Patent is valid, enforceable and infringed by the defendants."
The '746 Patent, which expires on May 21, 2011, relates to a computer controlled video system allowing playback during recording. During playback, the system reads the video content from the storage component. The '746 Patent derived from application serial number 07/703,685 that was filed on May 21, 1991.
Since its inception three years ago, Forgent's intellectual property program has generated more than $100 million in licensing revenues to companies in Asia, Europe and the United States. The company's patent portfolio includes the combined inventions of Compression Labs, Inc., VTEL Corporation, and Forgent Networks, Inc.
About Forgent
Forgent Networks (NASDAQ: FORG) develops and licenses intellectual property and provides scheduling software to a wide variety of customers. Forgent's intellectual property licensing program is related to communication technologies developed from a diverse and growing patent portfolio. Forgent's software division, NetSimplicity provides a spectrum of scheduling software that enables all sizes of organizations to streamline the scheduling of people, places and things. For additional information please visit www.forgent.com.
Safe Harbor
This release may include projections and other forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties and as such, actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired. Some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include changes in the general economy and the technology industry, rapid changes in technology, sales cycle and product implementations, risks associated with transitioning to a new business model and the subsequent limited operating history, the possibility of new entrants into the collaboration management market, the possibility that the market for the sale of certain software and services may not develop as expected; that development of these software and services may not proceed as planned, risks associated with the company's license program, including risks of litigation involving intellectual property, patents and trademarks, acquisition integration, and the ability to consummate certain divestiture transactions. Additional discussion of these and other risk factors affecting the company's business and prospects is contained in the company's periodic filings with the SEC.
Company contact:
Michael Noonan
512.437.2476
Media contact:
Lee Higgins
512.794-8600
SOURCE: Forgent Networks