Arbitron Reaches Settlements

NEW YORK Arbitron said Monday that it reached separate agreements with rival radio audience measurement firms Ipsos and The Media Audit in connection with patent infringement litigation that Arbitron brought against both in 2006.

In those actions, Arbitron charged its rivals with unlawful appropriation of its Portable People Meter technology. Ipsos and The Media Audit had teamed to devise a competing service to the PPM.

Arbitron filed suit against the companies in October 2006 in U.S. District Court in Texas, alleging that Ipsos and The Media Audit infringed three patents relating to the PPM technology.

Arbitron said it entered into an agreement with The Media Audit whereby the latter acknowledged that its patents were "valid, enforceable and not otherwise subject to any equitable defenses." The Media Audit further agreed that, until the expiration of all three patents, it would not "make, use, sell, offer for sale, test, demonstrate, distribute, or otherwise engage in activities that potentially infringe" those patents, per Arbitron.

In addition, Arbitron said the settlement applied to any "systems, methods, devices, including but not limited to the smart cell phone" developed by Ipsos that was previously marketed by The Media Audit in the U.S.

Phillip Beswick, evp at The Media Audit, said the company settled because, "We feel it's much more productive for us to be focused on helping radio in these challenging advertising times than for us to divert our energies in a legal dispute with another supplier like Arbitron."

Arbitron and Ipsos reached a separate agreement effectively dismissing Arbitron's patent infringement lawsuit without prejudice. As a result, Ipsos agreed to immediately suspend all efforts in the U.S. related to the commercialization, testing, and/or marketing of a portable electronics measurement system in all media until at least Jan.13, 2012.

At the time it filed suit, Steve Morris, then CEO of Arbitron said: "As a leading innovator of electronic audience measurement technology, we welcome competition as a way to foster the growth of the market. However, we must take action against companies that attempt to profit from our innovation by infringing Arbitron's patents on the technology that we have worked so long and at such expense to develop."