Sorenson hopes for speedy settlement of Apple suit

Sorenson Media Inc is hoping it can quickly settle out of court a lawsuit filed by partner Apple Computer Inc in which the video software firm is accused of breaking a longstanding contract between the two companies.

Apple sued Sorenson in San Jose last Friday, alleging the company is breaching the exclusivity clauses of a contract under which its licenses its Spark codec for use in Apple's QuickTime media suite. Last month, it emerged that Sorenson is also licensing some technology to Macromedia Inc for the new video component of Flash MX.

"Apple believes that Sorenson is licensing its Spark codec to third parties for products that compete with QuickTime in violation of our exclusivity agreement," said an Apple spokesperson, "so we are seeking damages and an injunction against the company." Apple reportedly paid Sorenson $4.5m for the license.

Ed McGarr, Sorenson's VP of sales and marketing, told ComputerWire yesterday the companies are holding discussions out of court, and he is hopeful they will be able to settle without going to trial. He disputed Apple's case, however, saying it comes down to a difference of interpretation of the contract's terms.

"The technology licensed to Macromedia is different," McGarr said. He said the codec used in Flash MX is based on the H.263 videoconferencing protocol, unlike the codecs licensed to Apple. "QuickTime is one of the best multimedia architectures out there, Flash is mainly a web application development environment."

Macromedia announced last month that Flash Player 6 will come with Sorenson software designed to allow it to play back video, the first time the Flash Player has been able to do so. With Apple already competing heavily against the likes of Microsoft Corp, Flash's 98% penetration of the desktop could cause the Mac vendor's market share even more headaches.

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