With merchants already gearing up for the busy holiday shopping season, One-Blue has developed a series of guidelines for consumer goods retailers to help them comply with a licensing, registration and labeling programme governing the sale and distribution of hardware and software covered by Blu-ray Disc products patents.

The awareness effort is designed to help brick-and-mortar and online retailers avoid supply chain disruptions and reduce their exposure to legal and financial risks in the event that they are unknowingly buying, stocking or reselling unlicensed Blu-ray Disc products.

One-Blue, the one-stop shop for patent licenses from the leading providers of Blu-ray Disc technology, is the licensing agent for more than 10,000 product patents that are essential to Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD intellectual property. The patents relate to the entire range of Blu-ray products, including discs, players, recorders, as well as optical disc drives and Blu-ray devices reading and writing software.

The following guidelines provide a check-list that retailers can use to protect themselves by ensuring that they are buying only from One-Blue licensees whose Blu-ray Disc products carry the appropriate registration marks and labeling.

Check One-Blue's Licensee Database. Determine whether your supplier has a registration or license agreement with One-Blue for the relevant Blu-ray Disc product by checking One-Blue's online Licensee Database. Companies that have a registration agreement are required to obtain a License Status Confirmation Document (LSCD) with every shipment, and are denoted in the database with an asterisk ("*").

Require that LSCDs are included in supply contracts. Retailers should require from their Blu-ray Disc product suppliers that LSCDs be provided with every shipment. Upon request, One-Blue can provide retailers with an overview of the LSCD process and if necessary, obtaining duplicate copies of issued LSCDs.

Look for One-Blue's Product Label. One-Blue requires that a label with a unique One-Blue logo and barcode, which contains anti-counterfeiting marks like a bank note, be placed on the outer packaging of all licensed Blu-ray players or recorders and Blu-ray-enabled PCs sold. The One-Blue Product Label signifies to retailers and consumers that the Blu-ray Disc product manufacturers have obtained a patent license from One-Blue.

One-Blue's licensors include leading electronics companies CyberLink, Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, JVC Kenwood, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Taiyo Yuden and Yamaha. To date, 92 manufacturers from more than 15 countries have joined One-Blue as licensees

Story filed 28.08.12