JPEG is the image compression standard that is used in almost all digital cameras, scanners and across the web. It is a very efficient format and provides high levels of compression and with high quality. The format is approved by the international standards organization. Today the US Patent and Trademark Office invalidated the main parts of the JPEG patent held by Forgent Networks. Forgent did not create the ideas involved in the patent. They bought company that owned the patent in 1997. In 2002 when their main business wasn’t doing much they decided to try and make some money off this patent. They sued several dozen companies for infringement including Kodak, Dell, Apple and Sony. They reached settlements for a bunch of companies and collected over $90 million. However, the Public Patent Foundation challenged the patent and produced a whole bunch of prior art. Prior art is evidence that the idea already existed before the patent was filed. If a concept is published then you cannot claim you invented something and get a patent. It was shown to the USPTO and the USPTO decided to reject the patent. Apparently Forgent even knew about this prior art before asserting their patent rights. So they knew the patent was invalid but tried to profit from it anyway. Good riddance to another patent troll.