ObjectVideo Inc, based in Reston, Virginia in the United States, has filed a lawsuit against Robert Bosch GmbH, Bosch Security Systems Inc, Samsung Group, Samsung Techwin Co Ltd, Samsung Techwin America, Sony Corporation and Sony Electronics Inc claiming infringement of ObjectVideo patents.
The company is seeking an injunction against the defendants for the sale of products that contain software features and functions which infringe certain ObjectVideo patents. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court of Virginia.
In a statement, the company said: “With the strong increase of video analytics offerings over the past few years, we’ve seen a similar increase in the number of companies using ObjectVideo’s patented technologies without paying for them,” said Bill Marino, chief intellectual property officer for ObjectVideo.
“We need to ensure our existing IP and software partners are not unfairly disadvantaged in the marketplace by competitors whose products use the same or similar functionality to innovations that are ours.”
ObjectVideo holds 37 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and International patents, along with 46 USPTO and International patents pending, all in the field of computer vision.
However, the ObjectVideo lawsuits won’t do the video analytics industry any favours, according to one industry analyst. “We believe this will have a chilling effect over the entire video analytic industry (as if the struggling analytic industry needed any other black eyes). Until this is resolved, all users face real risk from using not only Bosch, Samsung and Sony products but any other analytic that OV decides to sue,” wrote John Honovich on IPVideoMarket.info.
About ObjectVideo Inc
ObjectVideo was founded in 1998 by scientists and programme managers from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It is a private company baced by venture capital and says that two-thirds of its staff are involved in research and development.
ObjectVideo software is primarily available to the market through original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that embed ObjectVideo OnBoard® processor-based technology into a variety of video devices. ObjectVideo has 70 worldwide partners including many of the industry’s largest manufacturers, video management platform providers and leading technology companies.
