Faroudja, General Instrument And Snell & Wilcox Settle Patent Suit Dispute Snell & Wilcox Enters Into Sub-Licensing Agreement With Faroudja For Home Theater Products
Faroudja, Inc., Snell & Wilcox, Ltd. and General Instrument Corporation have announced the settlement of a suit brought by resolution of a patent dispute in which Faroudja alleged that Snell & Wilcoxís home theatre display optimization product, the Interpolator, infringed a patent held by Faroudja and two patents licensed by Faroudja to General Instrument on an exclusive basis in certain fields. While specific terms of the settlement agreement were not disclosed, a key element involves Snell & Wilcox obtaining from Faroudja a royalty-bearing license to two General Instrument patents. The license applies only to home theatre products, and no technology transfer is involved in the agreement. Executives form all three companies expressed satisfaction with the settlement. The General Instrument patents included in the settlement relate to detecting the 3:2 pull-down sequence of film-originated video and deinterlacing techniques used to improve the picture quality of television displays. ""We are pleased that we have settled this dispute in a way that strengthens out future strategic position,"" stated Glenn W. Marschel, Jr., Faroudjaís President, CEO and Co-Chairman. Faroudja, Inc. is a world leader in high performance video processing technologies of markets requiring superior image quality solutions. The company provides innovative products for the HDTV broadcast, home theatre, digital television and PC/TV convergence markets. Faroudjaís technologies are protected by more than 50 patents. Faroudja has received numerous awards including an Emmy Award for Engineering Development and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy presented in June 1998 to its founder, Yves Faroudja. General Instrument Corporation is a leading worldwide provider of integrated and interactive broadband access solutions, teaming with its business partners to lead the convergence of the Internet, telecommunications and video entertainment industries. Snell & Wilcox is a privately-held electronics group specializing in the invention, design and manufacture of high-quality digital video image processing products for the broadcast, satellite, cable, film and image communications industries. Its technical expertise has been recognized with numerous awards in Europe as well as by receipt of two Emmy Awards from the U.S. National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, the company maintains offices throughout the United States, Europe and the rest of the world. For more information, please contact Stan Pinkwas at 717 788 7777 or email at stanp@jbstanton.com or Faroudja at 408 735 1492.