Dolby is suing Adobe over unpaid royalties

Dolby Labs has sued Adobe in the US for copyright infringement and breach of contract. This is a license agreement through which Adobe products use audio technology from Dolby Labs. According to Dolby Labs, Adobe is not adhering to the agreements.

According to Dolby Labs, Adobe has made a commitment not to sell any of its products outside of the licensing agreement between the two. It includes a clause that gives Dolby the right to view Adobe’s data through a third-party investigation to verify how many sales Adobe has reported and therefore whether license revenues match.

The complaint, which was noted by The Register, states that Adobe has refused to allow even a basic level of control in Dolby’s eyes and that hardly any information has been shared. Based on information Dolby claims to have seen, the audio company claims that Adobe has used Dolby audio decoding technology in several software products, but has refused to report each sale and pay the associated royalties for them.

Each time Adobe licenses a customer to use Adobe software such as Lightroom or Photoshop, which incorporates Dolby audio technology, the agreement requires Adobe to disclose the sale and pay the agreed-upon royalty.

Dolby says it has not yet been able to determine the extent of Adobe’s infringement because Adobe is not willing to cooperate with the controls. Adobe also allegedly sold several products as bundles, but reported sales of only one product, Dolby said.