HP has reportedly reduced the initial licensing fee for LightScribe in order to get Taiwan's optical disc makers to adopt the technology.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has reduced the initial licensing fee to use its LightScribe technology to US$250,000-300,000 in order to encourage leading manufacturers of optical disc drives in Taiwan to adopt the technology over the competing LabelFlash technology developed by Fujifilm and Yamaha Corporation, according to industry sources. LightScribe and LabelFlash allows users to directly burn a label onto specially coated DVD discs.
With CMC Magnetics and Prodisc Technology the only two Taiwan-based makers adopting LightScribe, HP's promotion of the direct labeling technology in Taiwan has fallen short of expectations, the sources pointed out. HP lowered its initial licensing fee to produce LightScribe drives to encourage more manufacturers to make optical drives using the technology. HP is willing to negotiate the amount of the initial licensing fee and royalty payments with interested Taiwan-based makers, the sources indicated.
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