Japanese court overturns Red RAW video patent

The Japanese Patent Office has declared 1 of Red’s cardinal Raw video patents arsenic invalid, pursuing a situation by Panasonic.

The court wished that galore of the claims made successful the patent, first revenge successful the US successful 2008, would person been evident to personification skilled successful the taxable area and acquainted pinch existing developments.

The news, first reported by Thom Hogan, put Nikon’s video subsidiary successful the position of trying to take sides a patent that Nikon had antecedently based on was invalid.

The patent itself describes a high-resolution video camera that compresses its Raw data, and appears to correspond to the patent astatine the halfway of historical claims against Sony and Apple and the almost inevitable counter-suits from those companies. We reported connected galore of these challenges, arsenic good arsenic Nikon’s, complete the years. 

Nikon famously resolved the conflict by buying the company. Some of Red’s cinema camera and Raw knowledge has subsequently been applied to recent Nikon models.

It’s difficult to cognize what the effect the rejection of this patent will be, fixed Canon, Panasonic, Sony and Blackmagic Design each now nutrient cameras pinch soul Raw video capture. One anticipation the abolition of the license fees reportedly owed to Red from users of Apple’s ProRes RAW codec. But fixed Red went from being privately held to being absorbed into Nikon, it’s difficult to get a consciousness for really important these mightiness be. And, of course, we shouldn’t presume moreover a insignificant costs simplification would needfully get passed connected to consumers.

About the Author: Richard graduated arsenic a intelligence but had a batch much nosy penning and shooting for his assemblage magazine. A number of years spent variously arsenic a reporter, writer and editor connected subject and engineering titles mixed his knowledge of subject pinch his liking successful images and words. But it was spotting the connections betwixt emanation spectra, achromatic equilibrium and each the delirium he’d taught himself playing astir successful Photoshop that helped kindle an liking successful integer photography. Searching for a camera led to him discovering DPReview and Richard was recruited by Phil Askey successful 2007. He’s been combining his emotion of photography, connection and attraction to item (pedantry?) ever since. He has unusually beardown opinions astir lenses for the APS-C format.