Red is suing Nikon for alleged infringement of video compression patents

Camera brand Red.com LLC has filed a lawsuit against Nikon for allegedly using a patented video compression technology. Nikon has allegedly infringed several patents since firmware update 2.0 for the Z9 camera.

Red expects royalties from Nikon for the use of seven different patents, the related court documents. Most of the seven patents Red mentions describe “a video camera that can be configured to highly compress video data in a manner without visual impairment.” Nikon, according to the prosecution, deliberately uses shielded technologies and should have known that this was Red’s property.

For now, only the already released Nikon Z9 would use the alleged patented technologies; the camera will be able to save 8.3K resolution video files in Nikon’s proprietary N-RAW format at 60 frames per second after the firmware update.

Although Nikon presents it as a proprietary format, the technology is based on intoPIX’s raw codec TicoRAW. Nikon and intoPIX have entered into a partnership since the end of 2021. It is not clear why Red is not taking legal action against that company, but against competitor Nikon.