SigmaTel, Inc. has announced that its global intellectual property strategy has gained momentum with the sale of the U.S. Moon-Hwang patent to a patent licensing firm and an increased investment in its China IP protection initiatives. SigmaTel also intends to start filing Border Seizure Measures in Europe to enforce its European-based patents. The Border Seizure Measure permits unlicensed MP3 players which infringe SigmaTel's European patents and which are imported into Europe to be confiscated by European customs officials.
"We have increased our investment in our IP strategy targeted at enforcing our intellectual property in China and will continue to fund our strategy as needed to protect our stakeholders' investment," said Ron Edgerton, chairman, chief executive officer and president of SigmaTel. "Intellectual property must be respected on a worldwide basis for companies to continue their innovation efforts."
"Because it is a system level patent, it targets a broad base of consumer electronic devices and could potentially affect many manufacturers and retailers in the U.S.," said Ron Edgerton, chairman, chief executive officer and president of SigmaTel. "We believe the patent licensing company has the resources to realize the full potential of the Moon-Hwang patent. Because these are such basic patents to digital music, we believe it will be difficult to design around these patents and have a commercially viable player."
SigmaTel retains all Moon-Hwang intellectual property outside the United States and will continue to evolve its strategies to optimize the value of that intellectual property.
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