Shanghai. May 26. - Israel-based digital mobile TV chipmaker, Siano Mobile Silicon, has rebuked a claim that it infringed the China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) patents held by the standard's developer, TiMi Technologies Co. Ltd.
Speaking to Interfax on May 26, Siano's general manager, Wang Wei, responded to a recent Web announcement by TiMi Tech accusing Siano of infringing its CMMB-related patents. In the announcement, TiMi said it was considering taking legal action against Siano. As of May 26, the announcement had been removed from Timi Tech's Web site.
Wang said that Siano had obtained all the necessary permission it needed to develop CMMB technology from the CMMB working group, which consists of CMMB-related companies and is governed by China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Technology (SARFT). Siano is also a member of the CMMB working group.
According to Wang, the CMMB working group holds the patents relating to the use of the CMMB standard, whereas TiMi Tech, which itself is owned by SARFT, holds patents over its own self-developed methods of implementing the standard.
"As such, Siano did not infringe TiMi Tech's patent, as it obtained permission from the CMMB working group and developed CMMB mobile TV chips using its methods," Wang said.
Despite the claim that Siano had infringed TiMi's CMMB patents appearing on the latter's Web site, Siano's CEO, Alon Ironi, said in a statement sent to Interfax that the "rumor" had been started by a third-party competitor.
"As the CMMB market ramps up, one of Siano's competitors in the CMMB market has initiated a false rumor [...] that supposedly there is a legal conflict between TiMi Technologies [...] and Siano, regarding CMMB intellectual property (IP) rights," Ironi said in the statement.
"This letter is to assure you that this rumor is completely false. The relationship between Siano and TiMi Tech is as good as it has always been, and no legal complaint has been submitted by either of the two companies against the other one," he continued.
Ironi also expanded on the CMMB working group's position on CMMB patents.
"SARFT has mandated that all patents associated with CMMB are put into a patent pool under the management of the CMMB working group," he said. "No IP holder has any right to demand royalties associated with CMMB. At some point in the future (not in the near future), the CMMB working group may or may not request some nominal royalty from terminal makers that will go into the patent pool and be distributed by SARFT to any IP holders as appropriate. We must stress that they also may not request this."
Source: INTERFAX-CHINA
