Agoracom: Small Cap Investment - e.Digital

e.Digital Profile

"Intellectual Property"

e.Digital Corp owns 5 patents which it refers to as its Flash-R™ Patent Portfolio. The company has made licensing of its patented "MicroOS" flash file system, also called the "Norris Flash File System" or "NFFS," a priority since 1997.

e.Digital was the first company to design and manufacture a dedicated hard drive-based portable media player for the IFE industry and is one of the leading producers of dedicated portable In Flight Entertainment (IFE) to airlines around the world.

Despite the lack of major success within the device market after numerous products and partners over the years, the company claims that its patent holdings relating to flash memory are "fundamental and valuable, particularly in the areas of content file management, optimal flash memory management, and in removable flash applications."

The Company unveiled the first portable recorder with removable flash memory in 1993 and believes its patent portfolio to be essential to many consumer electronics products that utilize flash memory including cell phones, digital cameras, camcorders, PDAs and other popular devices.

List of Patents:

US5491774: Handheld record and playback device with flash memory.
US5742737: Method for recording voice messages on flash memory in a hand held recorder.
US5787445: Operating system including improved file management for use in devices utilizing flash memory as main memory.
US5839108: Flash memory file system in a handheld record and playback device.
US5842170: Method for editing in hand held recorder.

In February 2006, e.Digital announced that it was pursuing "monetization" of its patent portfolio. It engaged Pat Nunally, formerly of Patriot Scientific Corporation, as an Intellectual Property (IP) consultant in June 2006.

On December 21, 2006 the company stated to shareholders that they had "identified 174 companies with 1,372 products that appear to employ our patent portfolio."

In March 2007 the company engaged the law firm of Duane Morris LLP to pursue patent infringement claims on a contingent fee basis. The agreement grants Duane Morris 40 - 50% of all settlements and awards after full reimbursement for expenses incurred. The contingency fee agreement also provides a lien resulting in e.Digital's patents being officially assigned to Duane Morris.

Sep 7, 2007, e. Digital Corp vs. Vivitar Corporation - The company's first lawsuit for infringement of its patents was filed against Vivitar Corporation in the Marshall Division, Eastern District of Texas. ^...

On December 20, 2007 it further expanded its claim by stating: “To date, we have identified annual U.S. revenues of more than $20 billion from what we believe are infringing products from such companies."

MARCH 6, 2008, e.DIGITAL FILES PATENT INFRINGEMENT LAWSUITS AGAINST AVID ELECTRONICS, CASIO AMERICA, LG ELECTRONICS USA, NIKON, OLYMPUS AMERICA, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS AMERICA AND SANYO NORTH AMERICA.

Nov. 2009, “In concert with our legal representatives, we attained many of our early intellectual property (IP) monetization goals, successfully licensing all seven active companies in the first round of filings and using the $11.4 million in proceeds to strengthen our financial positions.

Nov. 3, 2009, e.Digital filed the infringement action against Canon, Kyocera, Nokia, Pentax, Panasonic, Ikegami, HTC, Coby Electronics, DXG, Roland, Leica Camera, Marantz, Imation, Summit Global (DBA Polaroid), Sakar, TEAC (DBA Tascam), VTech, Wolverine Data, and Samson Technologies (DBA Zoom).

As of Aug 17, 2011:

"We are pleased to have entered into our 15th Flash-R portfolio related licensing and settlement agreement,” said Fred Falk, president and CEO of e.Digital. Canon joins the growing list of Flash-R patent portfolio licensees, including Samsung, Olympus and other world recognized manufacturing companies."

Last changed at 08-May-2012 11:16AM by DISCHINO

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