JPEG war.

FORGENT CLAIMS JPEG PATENT, PLANS LICENSE-FEE ENFORCEMENT
A battle over rights to the popular JPEG image-file format is under way,
sparked by a recent claim from Austin, Texas-based Forgent Networks Inc.
Forgent, which claims to own the patent rights to a compression technology
the JPEG format uses, says it intends to start charging a license fee for
manufacturers of digital still cameras, printers, scanners and other
products that use JPEG technology. But while Forgent sees dollar signs,
the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) sees Forgent's claim as
fighting words. The JPEG committee has since issued its own release
emphasizing the importance of keeping the JPEG format an open standard,
free of royalty and license-fee payments. The committee is also
questioning whether Forgent's claim of the patent (U.S. Patent No.
4,698,672; October 1987) is valid, insisting that at the time the patent
was issued, the JPEG format had already been developed in some form, and
that, technically speaking, other firms such as Philips and Lucent
Technologies could also make similar claims. As a result, the JPEG
committee is launching a new section on its Web site to challenge
Forgent's patent claims, and is asking users to submit early JPEG files to
back up claims that the standard existed before Forgent's patent. The JPEG
committee hopes to have the new Web site area up and running before
October, when its next meeting takes place in Shanghai, China. The Joint
Photographic Experts Group Web site is http://www.jpeg.org; Forgent's site
is found at http://www.forgentnetworks.com