InterVideo sues Dell over patent

InterVideo Digital Technology slapped Dell with a lawsuit on Monday, charging the No. 1 PC maker with violating patents related to InterVideo's DVD playback software.

InterVideo, located in Fremont, Calif., is asking the court to enjoin Dell from manufacturing, selling or importing products that infringe patents tied to its Linux-based InstantOn technology. The software allows a DVD to automatically start playing a movie when a user inserts a disc into a computer running an InterVideo program. The suit concerns U.S. Patent No. 6,765,788.

InterVideo filed its complaint with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

A Dell representative said the company won't comment on outstanding litigation but said the company was made aware of the lawsuit only after InterVideo issued its statement.

This is not the first legal tussle between the two companies. In 2002, InterVideo issued 350,000 shares of its stock to Dell to settle patent infringement claims related to its WinDVD product.

InstantOn lets customers connect their PC with other consumer electronics equipment so they can watch TV, play music, browse photos and enjoy DVDs, InterVideo said.

Last year, InterVideo settled two patent infringement lawsuits against Taiwanese PC maker Acer. Those suits were also related to InstantOn.

Reuters contributed to this report.

[PCCRomeo]

InterVideo Sucks!

Not that I can say much more for Dell, but has anyone here ever used their DVD software? Horrible stuff...

[Muddleme]

I like their product.

I've four different versions of WinDVD.
I like it a lot better than PowerDVD, ATIDVD and other DVD players I own.
I'd never purchase another upgraded version though as I've found that very little functionality is added to new versions and they are not worth the price of the upgrade. With the last upgrade I purchased it seemed all they added was an annoying web validation check to make sure one had authorization to use it. Needless to say it's been about six years since I sent them any hard earned cash. A new version was bundled on a Sony laptop I purchased several years ago and it's essentially the very same program I bought about eight years ago with a different version number slapped on it.

[Harfeld Bilgewing]

Ridiculous

While having a movie play automatically when you insert a disk is a good idea, it is hardly an "invention," and hardly new. Everyone in the patent office should be fired and some younger people who understand technology and what an invention is should be brought in. How such a thing was ever awarded a patent in the first place astounds me. I am so tired of the patent terrorists trying to profit off of frivolous patents.

Thank you.

Your message has saved me from typing the exact same thing ;)