German Court Issues More Verdicts against ODS

Today the leading District Court for patent infringement in
Germany, the Landgericht Dusseldorf, has announced six additional
verdicts finding that DVD disc manufacturer Optical Disc Service
("ODS") has infringed certain patents licensed in the MPEG-2 Patent
Portfolio License offered by MPEG LA, LLC as a result of ODS's
manufacture of DVD video discs.

This brings to 14 the total number of cases in which the
Landgericht Dusseldorf has found ODS liable for infringement of
patents licensed in the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio license. In November
2006 the Landgericht Dusseldorf announced eight such verdicts. As a
result of several patent holders enforcing the earlier verdicts, and
even though the verdicts can be appealed, ODS must cease and desist
its current DVD production which uses the enforced patents, and pay
damages to the patent owners for past production. See
http://www.mpegla.com/news/n_07-01-03_pr.pdf,
http://www.mpegla.com/news/n_06-12-21_pr.pdf and
http://www.mpegla.com/news/n_06-11-30_pr.pdf.

In its earlier decisions, which have since been published, the
Landgericht Dusseldorf established that DVD video discs and other
record carriers carrying data structures generated by applying a
patent protected coding method (such as the MPEG-2 Standard "without
whose technical standardization mass dissemination of the DVD
technology would be inconceivable") constitute infringing products of
a patent protected method. The Landgericht Dusseldorf also confirmed
the acceptability of MPEG LA's MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License.

The MPEG-2 Standard is the core technology underlying the
efficient creation, transmission, storage and display of digitized
moving images and soundtracks on which DVD and other digital
technologies are based; DVD-Video Discs in accordance with the
DVD-Video Standard (DVD Specifications for Read-Only Disc, Part 3:
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS) contain information formatted in accordance with
the MPEG-2 standard.

MPEG LA, LLC

MPEG LA is the world leader in alternative technology licenses,
enabling users to acquire worldwide patent rights necessary for a
technology standard or platform from multiple patent holders in a
single transaction as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses.
Wherever an independently administered one-stop patent license would
provide a convenient marketplace alternative to assist users with
implementation of their technology choices, the licensing model
pioneered and employed by MPEG LA may provide a solution. Among MPEG
LA's licenses is one for MPEG-2 digital video compression that has
helped produce the most widely employed standard in consumer
electronics history. The MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License, which
includes approximately 800 MPEG-2 essential patents in 57 countries,
has more than 1000 licensees accounting for most MPEG-2 products,
including an estimated 90% of all DVD discs, in the current world
market. MPEG LA is an independent licensing administrator; it is not
related to any standards agency and is not an affiliate of any patent
holder. For more information, please refer to http://www.mpegla.com.