RED sues Nikon over internal compressed RAW capture on Nikon Z9

[12:41 Fri,27.May 2022 by Rob]

We&re rubbing our eyes in a bit of amazement: RED - known for its litigiousness regarding its infamous RAW patent patents.google.com/patent/US9245314B2/en US9245314B2
- is now suing Nikon over the new Nikon Z9&s internal compressed RAW capture option.

Nikon had made its 2.0 firmware for the Z9) available for free download on www.slashcam.de/news/single/Nikon-Z-9-bekommt-am-20-4--das-8K60p-RAW-intern----17154.html (04/20 this year. With this, the Nikon Z9 now has internal max 8.3K RAW video recording up to max 60p in Nikon N-RAW and 4.1K max 60p recording in Pro Res Raw HQ.

We have reported many times on slashCAM about RED&s RAW patent and various lawsuits or licensing agreements. Like for example

here after Apple failed in court or

here the license agreement between Atomos and RED or

here our speculation about the patent exchange between Canon and RED.

Accordingly, we are puzzled about RED&s lawsuit, which suggests that no agreement exists between Nikon and RED. This in turn leads us to two conclusions: either Nikon is very sure of itself and sees a way to challenge the RED RAW patent for both ProRes RAW and N-RAW - which was developed by

IntoPix - or Nikon has stumbled into this rather unprepared.

Nikon has only recently become more involved in the video sector, but to not have heard of the infamous RED RAW patent with all its discussions about "triviality" and "prior art" in the video industry, you have to make an effort :-)

So for now, let&s keep our fingers crossed for Nikon that they have a plan here. Should the RED patent fall, real compressed RAW format should finally find its way into many cameras and detours like partially decompressed RAW (Blackmagic Design) or complex licensing structures will be a thing of the past. In view of the big names that have already cut their teeth on the patent (Sony, Apple, Blackmagic, etc.), we don&t see much hope at the moment.

The fact that the 2.0 Nikon firmware update is already available should not be easy (and in case of doubt quite expensive for Nikon).

And so now a new chapter in the never-ending story of RAW-WARS has been opened. May the force be with us ...

T

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deutsche Version dieser Seite: RED verklagt Nikon wegen interner, komprimierter RAW Aufnahme bei der Nikon Z9