Imatec Ltd, the New York color imaging software company says it has looked at all the material submitted to it by Apple Computer Inc and elsewhere and has decided that Apple’s claim that it had not infringed Imatec’s patents has not been substantiated and therefore its case still stands. Imatec sued Apple for $1.1bn to cover patent infringements in March this year, alleging that three of its patents were being used in Apple’s ColorSync color management system product (03/26/98). Those patents actually belong to Imatec’s president and CEO, Hanoch Shalit, who licensed them exclusively to Imatec. The technology covered by the patents corrects the tone and color in computer-generated images. Apple claimed in April that it had used similar technology from German printing systems company Rudolf Hell GmbH, which is now part of Heidelberg Prepress (04/17/98). It went on to claim that products using this technology were available in the US market as early as 1985, eight years before Imatec filed its patents. Imatec says Apple has until December 15 to come up with evidence of products using similar technology. Now Imatec says it is very confident of prevailing in the case, which it hopes will come to court in New York by the spring – unless Apple chooses to settle out of court before that, it adds. Apple did not return calls yesterday.
