Philips and Digimarc extend watermarking agreement

Philips and Digimarc have announced the signing of a new agreement that extends the licensing of Digimarc's digital watermarking patents to now include audio applications as well as a broader range of video applications.
The new non-exclusive agreement covers video and audio applications in professional, governmental and consumer markets, thus expanding the scope of applications and market opportunities of both companies' activities in digital watermarking.
Digimarc, with headquarters in Tualatin, Oregon, USA, first signed a digital watermarking licensing agreement with Philips in April 2001 to support deployment of Philips' ‘WaterCast’ digital video watermarking system.
This agreement was extended in September 2001 to license additional applications to Philips and expand development and co-marketing activities. Since then, jointly developed solutions have included video copyright communication, forensic tracking, asset management and remote triggering applications. The latest agreement extends applications to the audio domain.
Commenting on the new agreement, Ronald Maandonks, Business Manager Content Identification at Philips, said: "It is increasingly important to be able to accurately identify content through the use of digital watermarking. The expansion of the licensing agreement with Digimarc confirms our respective leading positions in digital watermarking technology."
Reed Stager, Vice President, Digimarc Global Licensing, added: "Extending our cooperation with Philips reflects the recent increase in commercial interest and use of digital watermarking, and Philips is continuing to develop and drive innovative new audio and video products and services into the market.”
Since the introduction of the first WaterCast commercial solutions at IBC2000 in Amsterdam, Philips and its partners have successfully deployed the system to monitor broadcast content in a number of countries in most regions of the world.
(AMcE)