1. Prey521's Avatar
    One of the first things I noticed about the Playbook is it's high quality speakers and how crisp/clear the sound is as opposed to other tablets I've used that were nowhere near as good.....now I see why! lol

    Dolby sues RIM for patent infringement, looks to halt BlackBerry sales

    Dolby announced on Wednesday that it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Waterloo, Canada-based Research In Motion in the U.S. and in Germany. The suit seeks the recovery of financial damages resulting from RIM’s infringing products, and it also looks to halt sales of multiple BlackBerry devices. The patents in question cover “highly efficient digital audio compression technologies” that minimize storage space occupied by high quality audio files. Dolby claims that RIM uses these technologies in its BlackBerry smartphones and its PlayBook tablet, but it does not pay Dolby licensing fees as all other major manufacturers do. “Litigation was regrettably our last resort after RIM declined to pay for the use of Dolby’s technology,” Dolby EVP and general counsel Andy Sherman said in a statement. “We have a duty to protect our intellectual property.” Dolby’s full press release follows below.
    06-15-11 12:53 PM
  2. Blacklac's Avatar
    No, the quality speakers and well thought out speaker location have more to do with the high quality sound.

    The audio codec plays s role for sure, but its far from the whole reason.

    Regardless, this one looks like trouble for RIM.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    06-15-11 12:56 PM
  3. Prey521's Avatar
    No, the quality speakers and well thought out speaker location have more to do with the high quality sound.

    The audio codec plays s role for sure, but its far from the whole reason.

    Regardless, this one looks like trouble for RIM.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    True, most every other tab i've seen have back or side firing speakers, which doesn't make sense if you ask me.
    06-15-11 12:58 PM
  4. insanekronic's Avatar
    Its common when two companies are negotiating over patent licenses to sue the other to get leverage in the negotiations.
    06-15-11 01:00 PM
  5. yzf.shaun's Avatar
    I just clicked on some of those other articles. It seems every tech company just wants to sue each other. Would be inetersting to know what figures have been onvolved in teh case between Apple and Nokia.
    06-15-11 01:14 PM
  6. Blacklac's Avatar
    True, most every other tab i've seen have back or side firing speakers, which doesn't make sense if you ask me.
    Yeah, makes me laugh. Who thought rear facing speakers on a Tablet was a good idea??

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    06-15-11 01:18 PM
  7. shootsscores's Avatar
    Free ads touting the PB's superior sound.
    06-15-11 01:39 PM
  8. Bla1ze's Avatar
    Hide ya tablets, hide ya codecs -- they suing errrryone 'round here!
    06-15-11 01:46 PM
  9. ScottsdaleHokie's Avatar
    Just what RIM needed.
    06-15-11 01:52 PM
  10. BBMale's Avatar
    Advertisment! Bad, but it is still advertisment!
    06-15-11 01:58 PM
  11. shootsscores's Avatar
    "The only worse thing than being talked about is not being talked about."

    "There is no such thing as bad publicity."
    bquinney likes this.
    06-15-11 02:03 PM
  12. BBWatchCA's Avatar
    That's just business. Not a big deal. Did RIM survive

    RIM's financial reports usually includes multiple pages on Legal Proceedings, starting with the following:

    The Company is involved in litigation in the normal course of its business, both as a defendant and as a plaintiff. The Company may be subject to claims (including claims related to patent infringement, purported class actions and derivative actions) either directly or through indemnities against these claims that it provides to certain of its partners. In particular, the industry in which the Company competes has many participants that own, or claim to own, intellectual property, including participants that have been issued patents and may have filed patent applications or may obtain additional patents and proprietary rights for technologies similar to those used by the Company in its products. The Company has received, and may receive in the future, assertions and claims from third parties that the Company�s products infringe on their patents or other intellectual property rights. Litigation has been and will likely continue to be necessary to determine the scope, enforceability and validity of third-party proprietary rights or to establish the Company�s proprietary rights.
    06-15-11 02:15 PM
  13. FF22's Avatar
    That's just business. Not a big deal. Did RIM survive

    RIM's financial reports usually includes multiple pages on Legal Proceedings, starting with the following:

    The Company is involved in litigation in the normal course of its business, both as a defendant and as a plaintiff. The Company may be subject to claims (including claims related to patent infringement, purported class actions and derivative actions) either directly or through indemnities against these claims that it provides to certain of its partners. In particular, the industry in which the Company competes has many participants that own, or claim to own, intellectual property, including participants that have been issued patents and may have filed patent applications or may obtain additional patents and proprietary rights for technologies similar to those used by the Company in its products. The Company has received, and may receive in the future, assertions and claims from third parties that the Company�s products infringe on their patents or other intellectual property rights. Litigation has been and will likely continue to be necessary to determine the scope, enforceability and validity of third-party proprietary rights or to establish the Company�s proprietary rights.
    Hey, as long as they are already prepared - how 'bout a class action suit on the lack of Portrait Mode in the Picture app and the lack of bookmark organization in the Browser and ... and ... and ....
    06-15-11 02:27 PM
  14. jwn66's Avatar
    Nothing will happen.
    06-15-11 02:40 PM
  15. blackjack93117's Avatar
    These days, litigation is actually considered a "revenue stream" by a lot of companies - pretty sorry statement on the modern business world.
    06-15-11 02:52 PM
  16. blackjack93117's Avatar
    This actually could help underline the high quality audio of Playbook in the media and marketplace. Could be beneficial. maybe they held back paying the license fees to milk the media exposure, then they will just settle..
    06-15-11 02:53 PM
  17. zoso28's Avatar
    Personally I think this is a good thing.. I'm sure RIM was well aware of the possibility of the lawsuit and probably has been preparing for circumstances like this. At least it's publicity, and as previously stated there's no bad publicity.

    Hopefully a few people out there take notice of the playbook's superiority and decide that they must have one of these 'infringing' devices before they're 'pulled' from the marketplace. I doubt this one lawsuit will do much for the playbook, but who knows.

    On the other hand, I hope RIM doesn't have to allocate any of its playbook development fund to defending the thing. After all, they're operating on a budget that can't fund auto-correction, so it can't be very much.
    06-15-11 03:03 PM
  18. MobileMadness002's Avatar
    The would not pull the device, just the codec.
    06-15-11 03:26 PM
  19. mscooley's Avatar
    Hide ya tablets, hide ya codecs -- they suing errrryone 'round here!
    LOL. Hilarious.
    06-15-11 03:35 PM
  20. HaTaX's Avatar
    This is stupid.... I would think if they were lifting or copying Dolby's codecs, it would at least be able to play an AC3 Dolby Digital encoded video file!!!

    I'd love to be able to play AC3 encoded files, so even if RIM had to dish out a few dollars. I'm betting Dolby is looking for $$ elsewhere as the digital audio field has branched out reducing their revenue stream.
    Last edited by HaTaX; 06-15-11 at 04:45 PM.
    06-15-11 04:42 PM
  21. offthahorseceo's Avatar
    had to be a BGR link huh? ive been one-man-boycotting them for going on 2 weeks now.

    all they do is praise apple bash rim
    06-15-11 04:45 PM
  22. chiefbroski's Avatar
    Dolby's hating because cause RIM's Black....






    ...berry Playbook makes money and they want some of it.
    06-16-11 12:30 PM
  23. Cozmik's Avatar
    What this world needs is fewer lawyers and more honest people.

    I don't know why, but I feel that RIM has something really big about to happen/be announced/released soon. I hope I'm right and all this 'sky is falling, RIM is doomed' can finally be put to rest for awhile.
    chiefbroski and tstrike34 like this.
    06-16-11 12:38 PM
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