On 11 June, the DVD6C, the licensing group made up of nine leading developers of DVD technology and formats, celebrated its 10th anniversary.

The new licensing programme was announced when six companies - Hitachi; Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic); Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Time Warner; Toshiba Corporation; and Victor Company of Japan (JVC), stated their intent to commence a worldwide joint licensing programme for patents "essential for DVD-Video players, DVD-ROM drives, DVD decoders and DVD-Video and DVD-ROM discs".

This, said the official statement, was commenced following receipt of an affirmative business review letter from the US Department of Justice and filing a notification with the European Commission. "The potential licensees will benefit from one-stop shopping for the essential patents owned by the six companies, which will facilitate the development of the DVD market."

In a statement, the agency “extending its thanks to all of the companies, and their clients, who have supported the agency over the past decade, and wishing them future success as they continue to work with DVD6C in the years to come.”

Story filed 15.06.09