Philips accused of copying!

HANOVER: A French start-up company, Varioptic said that Dutch company Philips Electronics had infringed its patents for a technology to make auto-focusing camera lenses without moving parts that can be used in phone handsets. "From what we know, Philips is relying on technology which is patented by us. Our position is very strong from an intellectual property point of view," said Etienne Paillard, chief executive of France's Varioptic, a two-year old company from Lyon, France.

Philips, which announced two weeks ago it had invented a cheap camera lens that could focus without moving glass or plastic lenses against each other such as in expensive digital cameras, said it had not infringed any patents.

"Our lens also uses fluids. But the technology is fundamentally different and we believe we have not infringed Varioptic's patents," a spokesman for Philips Research said.

Camera phones are the big growth segment of the mobile pone market, with tens of millions of units shipped last year. The quality of the pictures is still mediocre, also because the lenses lack the ability to focus.

Both companies will show their lenses at CeBIT, the world's biggest electronics trade show held annualy in Hanover, Germany.

Varioptic, which shows a working lens in a camera phone module manufactured together with South Korea's Samsung Electro-Mechanics, said it would defend its rights.

"We'll do whatever is necessary to protect our intellectual property," Paillard said, adding he did not rule out legal action if Philips offers its lens commercially.

Philips, which is still working on a process to manufacture the tiny lenses, is showing a research model at the trade show.

The lenses, made from a little tube in which two fluids are manipulated to mimic the curve of a lens, are just a few millimetres wide.

Varioptic, which received its first two million euro venture capital investment last summer and which is about to close another 10 million euro investment round, said it had patented the two key technologies in 1997 and 1999 in key countries around the world. Philips's technology was patented later.

"There are no earlier patents than ours," Paillard said.

© Reuters