IBIQUITY ACQUIRES COMMAND AUDIO'S PATENTS FOR DIGITAL RADIO

IBiquity said acquisition set stage for radio broadcasters to provide consumers with content on-demand, as well as selecting radio programs via electronic guide, scanning content and pausing or saving for later listening. CA technology also will give content providers and advertisers tools to design innovative programming, iBiquity said. It has established Redwood City, Cal., office and has hired former CA software engineering employees.

IBiquity plans to integrate CA technology with its digital AM and FM system to let broadcasters and consumers “leverage the revolutionary capabilities of digital radio,” iBiquity CEO Robert Struble said. “Radio manufacturers will be positioned to fully utilize the additional storage and multimedia capabilities in their products to differentiate the digital radio experience from today’s analog,” he said.

iBiquity received exclusive licensing rights to all CA intellectual property for all radio systems and products including digital AM and FM radio, satellite digital radio and other digital radio systems worldwide. CA now will focus remaining business on licensing its on-demand media intellectual property in nonradio fields such as PVRs and terrestrial and satellite TV applications. CA Chmn. Don Bogue said iBiquity “can effectively commercialize the on-demand media capabilities developed by Command Audio for radio products, while we continue our licensing initiatives in the large and dynamic television arena.”

That initiative in TV and PVRs would include suit against Sony for patent infringement (CED Feb 28 p1). Spokesman for iBiquity told us that because it had licensed CA’s technology only for digital radio uses, CA’s suit against Sony over TV- centric PVRs didn’t involve iBiquity and had no impact on its rights. CA didn’t return our request for comment Tues. CA sued Sony in Feb., alleging Sony’s TiVo-based PVR infringed on 2 of CA patents. Suit, in U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, charged PVR had violated patents underlying audio-on-demand service that included portable receiver in which data were stored. Patents were issued in Dec. 1996 and Dec. 2001 to Macrovision Chmn. John Ryan, who was listed as inventor.

Older patent describes interface that lets user access information via menu and is based on storage medium such as digital audio tape, magneto-optical minidisc, magnetic or optical disc with space for 10 hours of audio. Receiver can decompress digital audio information and transform it to speech. System receives information from FM subcarrier or TV vertical blanking interval. Second patent builds on first by adding feature in which voice or single or multiposition switch allows user to scan through and select items from menu. Sony declined comment on suit.

CA was founded as Macrovision subsidiary in 1995, but latter cut ownership to 19.8% year later and now has 7% ($3.7 million). CA began test of audio-on-demand service in Sept. 2000 in Phoenix and Denver markets using RCA 1000 receiver. It said then that service consisted of 200 programs that were compressed and transmitted via transponder on GE Americom satellite. Service had been scheduled for full rollout this year, but iBiquity’s timetable or other plans weren’t known. Motorola, also CA investor, had developed I-Radio that was to be included in 2003 model Ford and GM vehicles and carry CA software; future for those plans also wasn’t known. Ford is among iBiquity investors, as are 15 top radio broadcasters, including ABC, Clear Channel, Viacom.