This month LeisureTech was stripped of the rights to distribute the Russound product range in Australia as tipped by ChannelNews back in May 2009. We have also been told that Russound is set to join Xantech in challenging the validity of the A Bus patents in the USA.
In 2008, LeisureTech lost a major A Bus patent case in the UK High Court, this resulted in LeisureTech placing itself into administration, in an effort to avoid paying its own court case costs and over $1 million dollars in costs to the UK Armour Group, which took LeisureTech to court claiming that their A Bus patents were invalid. Armour is now challenging the validity of the A Bus patents in the Europe Court.
A senior Xantech executive at the CES said, "We are currently the A Bus patent as we believe it is not valid. We believe that we have a case to challenge the validity of the patent. We will launch our new products in Australia when we have resolved this issue."
Among the new Xantech is a new DDS Digital Delivery System, as well as a new MRC88 multi-room A/V controller and amplifier a new LCD touch panel and new VDA51 Virtual Dolby® Decoder.
Sold in Australia by Amber Technology, the new Xantech Digital Delivery System uses DIGI-5™ technology and Category-5 cabling to distribute high-performance audio throughout residential homes, apartment complexes, hotels, restaurants and resorts. Xantech claim that the new DDS system provides cleaner audio at louder listening levels than previous analogue systems.
