Biamp Systems has been involved in a court case between ClearOne Communications, based in Salt Lake City, and WideBand Solutions, filed in 2007. The case claims WideBand Solutions misappropriated ClearOne's intellectual property. Biamp Systems was named as a co-defendant in the case, based on a license agreement between WideBand Solutions and Biamp Systems.
The United States District Court of Central Utah in Salt Lake City issued a permanent injunction prohibiting WideBand Solutions from any use of the intellectual property, including the AEC-2W algorithm it had previously licensed to Biamp Systems. Biamp never possessed or had access to the source code for that algorithm, and had ceased using it in 2006. Since 2006, all of Biamp's products have contained its own code, which Biamp developed internally.
Although unaffected by the outcome of the injunction, Biamp Systems maintains it had no knowledge of any misappropriation of the ClearOne code, and will file an appeal. "ClearOne has pursued a communications strategy which portrays Biamp as the primary target in the case, and misleads the public about Biamp's role in this lawsuit," stated Ralph Lockhart, president of Biamp Systems. "Biamp believes this is a desperate attempt to create confusion in the marketplace, and in the minds of our customers. For our company, it is important to clearly communicate the facts."
"Biamp was a minor defendant in this case, and was named last in all court documents. Biamp has not sold or marketed products with the accused WideBand code since 2006, and had stopped using it before the lawsuit was ever filed. This injunction does not affect any of Biamp's existing products, and does not have any implications for our past or current customers. We maintain our innocence, and continue to stay focused on technological innovation, and supporting our customers, regardless of ClearOne's actions."
(Lee Baldock)
