Cardinal Technologies announces end of Creative lawsuit.LANCASTER, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 27, 1994--Cardinal Technologies Inc. Tuesday announced that the litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. brought by Singapore-based Creative Technology Ltd. and its subsidiary, Creative Labs Inc., has been satisfactorily resolved and the lawsuit filed by Creative has been dismissed. Last January, Creative filed a lawsuit against Cardinal seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction permanent injunction n. a final order of a court that a person or entity refrain from certain activities permanently or take certain actions (usually to correct a nuisance) until completed. prohibiting Cardinal from using the phrase "Sound Blaster A very popular family of sound cards from Creative Labs. In the days of DOS, Sound Blaster was the de facto interface for gaming sounds. Monaural Sound Blaster cards were introduced in 1989, and stereo cards followed in 1992 (Sound Blaster Pro). compatible" in conjunction with Cardinal's sound card products. Sound cards provide audio functions to personal computers. In its lawsuit, Creative had claimed that without ADPCM (Adaptive Differential PCM) A widely used variation of PCM that codes the difference between sample points like differential PCM (DPCM), but can also dynamically switch the coding scale to compensate for variations in amplitude and frequency. (adaptive differential pulse code modulation pulse code modulation: see modulation. See PCM. (data) Pulse Code Modulation - (PCM) A method by which an audio signal is represented as digital data. ) Cardinal's sound cards could not fully emulate Sound Blaster capabilities. ADPCM is a method for compressing and decompressing de·com·press v. de·com·pressed, de·com·press·ing, de·com·press·es v.tr. 1. To relieve of pressure or compression. 2. speech and sound capabilities. While Cardinal always maintained that neither ADPCM in general, nor Creative's version in particular, was required to operate the vast majority of Sound Blaster compatible software, Cardinal added ADPCM software to its standard product line of sound cards last March. In May, the Federal District Court in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden denied Creative's request for a preliminary injunction A temporary order made by a court at the request of one party that prevents the other party from pursuing a particular course of conduct until the conclusion of a trial on the merits. A preliminary injunction is regarded as extraordinary relief. and allowed Cardinal to advertise its sound cards as "Sound Blaster compatible." Under the terms of the settlement announced Tuesday, all remaining claims are resolved and Cardinal will be able to continue to advertise its sound card products as "compatible" with most software supporting the Sound Blaster standard. Pursuant to Creative's request, Cardinal has agreed to keep the specific terms of the agreement confidential. "Cardinal is very please that this lawsuit, which we always felt was unjustified, has been dismissed," said Wolfgang Hausen, Cardinal's president and chief executive officer. "We are also pleased that we were able to resolve this lawsuit without any impact on the company, financial or otherwise. Now we can go forward and focus on meeting the computing needs of our customers." Cardinal Technologies Inc., located in Lancaster, was founded in 1987 through a management buy-out of RCA's New Products Division. In November 1993 the Paul Allen Group, through its venture capital organization, Vulcan Northwest Inc., became Cardinal's majority shareholder and made Cardinal part of the Paul Allen Group of technology companies. Other Paul Allen companies include Interval Research, Asymetrix Corp., Starwave Corp., Metricom, Ticketmaster and Egghead Corp. Cardinal, a privately-held company, designs, manufactures and markets advanced PC products for interactive sound, vision and communication. Its products are known worldwide for their superior price and performance. -0- NOTE: Sound Blaster is a trademark of Creative Technology Inc. CONTACT: Cardinal Technologies, Lancaster Robin Palmer, 717/293-3013 |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion