The DVD6C Licensing Group (DVD6C) announced Friday that Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. and Sharp Corp. have joined its worldwide joint licensing program.
The licensing group's other members include Hitachi, Ltd., IBM, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Toshiba Corp., JVC, and Warner Home Video Inc.
The DVD6C Group has licensed essential DVD patents owned by its member companies since June 1999, adding licensing for DVD-Recorders, DVD-Audio Players, DVD-R, -RW and -RAM Drives, DVD-Audio, -R, -RW, -and -RAM discs and cases. The licenses cover patents owned by the 6C member companies that are essential for products complying with the DVD-format specs defined by the DVD Forum.
Membership of SANYO and Sharp in the joint licensing program will benefit existing and future licensees of DVD6C, who will obtain a license to additional essential patents for the DVD products at no additional charge.