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Home»BlackBerry News»News & Rumors

RIM settles patent lawsuit with Dolby, agrees to pay royalties

by Bla1ze on 12 Sep 2011 12:38 PM
16
 
Dolby

Back in June, Dolby Laboratories set their legal sights on RIM claiming that RIM had used their patented technology and refused to sign a licensing agreement even though the audio compression techniques were used in the BlackBerry Storm, Tour, Pearl, Curve and Torch, and the Playbook. Shortly after the filing though, RIM signed an agreement with Via Licensing Corp. who handles Dolby licensing where in they are now allowed to use Dolby Laboratories technology across all RIM products. Details behind the arrangements were not made public but Dolby General Counsel Andy Sherman said:

“We are pleased to welcome RIM into Dolby’s family of mobile-technology licensees,”

Pretty open and shut case for the RIM and Dolby legal teams I suppose, RIM pays Dolby money and we all get to enjoy quality audio on our RIM products. The damage to RIM's financials is estimated to be around $15 million but that could have increased since Dolby mentioned that number on a analyst's conference call last month. Funny, but my only concern right now is -- I hope they don't start stamping all our devices with Dolby logos.

Source: Bloomberg

Filed Under: News & Rumors; Tags: Dolby, RIM
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16 Comments

Posted by Kingkracker Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

The Dolby stamp is probably a contractural demand...

 
 
Posted by WillieLee Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

If embossing the logos on devices was a necessity of licensing patents, they all would look like soccer uniforms.

 
 
Posted by Kingkracker Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

Not 'all', just Dolby. Incase you haven't noticed the logo is on every device that offers Dolby.

 
 
Posted by Bla1ze Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

http://bit.ly/q2GUTj

 
 
Posted by seb.hebert Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

oooooohhhhhhhhhh! Yeah, I wouldn't want that on my BB

 
 
Posted by Kingkracker Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

Exactly. Y-u-c-k
It clashes me thinks with the pretty 'berry.

 
 
Posted by Zizzzzy Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

Perhaps they can hide it inside the battery compartment.

 
 
Posted by Kingkracker Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

Brilliant! Or if it has to be 'seen' maybe a nanosecond flash at boot.

 
 
Posted by CMHberry Monday, Sep 12, 2011 255 days ago

Or as CB thread noted, nothing a Q-tip and fingernail polish remover couldn't handle.

 
 
Posted by MrFuts Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

Quality music - inferior music player

Come on RIM, I know you push health and wellness@Work, but fix the app player so if you have a Torch and are listening to music while doing physical activity!! You can hit PREFERABLY the screen lock button and it keeps playing tunes with quick access to get back to the media player in case your non favorite song pops up.

Not going to lie, but it *works* sometimes which is odd, and sometimes it doesn't and I have to leave the Torch unlocked in my knapsack praying it won't do anything.

Would love to replace my iPod Nano with a mobile music device aka Torch I have...

 
 
Posted by seb.hebert Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

What OS/ Torch are you using?
I have the 9800 and I NEVER had this issue.
I love my Torch for listening to music ( it even plays .flac which is something the Playbook needs to learn)

 
 
Posted by thepinkcurve Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

I have a 9300/6.0.0.546 and I just use the media keys.

 
 
Posted by mapsonburt Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

What the flac is that? :-)

 
 
Posted by stackberry369 Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

The Dolbyberry lol.

 
 
Posted by dasDestruktion Monday, Sep 12, 2011 256 days ago

Perhaps they'll just take on a Dolby license to the list of them in the "about" section of our device settings. We already have the OS/Platform page, JAVA/SunMicro license, NuanceV Suite license, Qualcomm license, Open Source WebKit information, and Android Open Source Product page. Just add the Dolby one in there. :)

 
 
Posted by altgenre Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 255 days ago

my concern is how much will this 15 million be passed on to consumers?