Technicolor looks for patent payoff from Apple and Samsung

Technicolor, the iconic French company that invented the process that enables color movies, is looking for large patent payoffs from major mobile vendors, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The company holds more than 40,000 video, audio and optics patents, and reportedly employs a team of 220 people who dissect every new smartphone and tablet from vendors such as Apple, Samsung and HTC. The team is responsible for locating patent infringements within each device. “We usually send manufacturers a big file, with photos of the guts of their products, pointing to where they’ve been using our technology without paying for it,” said Beatrix de Russe, a lawyer and executive vice president of intellectual property at Technicolor. “Once those images have sunk in, we can start negotiating.” Technicolor has agreements with “all major manufacturers” and is also in talks with multiple vendors over new devices, although de Russe declined to elaborate with further details. The company’s patent licensing division is its most profitable business and accounts for nearly 13% of Technicolor’s total revenue.

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