FVD (forward versatile disc), Taiwan’s self-developed DVD standard, is getting a boost in the fight against EVD (enhanced versatile disc), a China-developed DVD standard, as Beijing E-World Digital Technology, a major promoter of the EVD standard, has defaulted on some loan payments and now stands to lose some of its patents, according to DigiTimes.

The China-based company used nine patents to secure a loan of 14 million yuan (about US$1.7 million) from two international financing companies and it has now defaulted on repayment of this loan. As a result of this, one of the financing companies is preparing to auction some of the patents, said sources at China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).

The FVD standard may benefit from the situation and achieving the target to ship three million FVD discs this year now appears very likely, according to Derray Huang, deputy general director of the Opto-electronics and Systems Laboratories (OES) at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

Various companies in Europe and the US have decided to roll out PC-use FVD discs and accelerate their volume production plans to the second half of this year. Consequently, sales of FVD discs will be pushed by the trend, Huang indicated

Source: DigiTimes