Sony, others file a lawsuit against Dell over MPEG2

Sony Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Victor Company of Japan Ltd., France Télécom SA, Scientific Atlanta Inc. and Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV's U.S. unit filed a lawsuit last Friday against Dell Computer Corp. for a patent infringement of MPEG2 video compression technologies, a Sony spokesman and a Mitsubishi spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

The six companies sued Dell in the U.S. District Court of Delaware, charging that Dell has been selling PCs equipped with DVD (digital versatile disc) drives using MPEG2 technologies without being licensed by these companies, said Masanobu Sakaguchi, a spokesman for Sony.

Dell has not released an official comment regarding the matter, said Taeko Miyazono, a spokeswoman for Dell in Japan.