A California court trial involving patent infringement allegations against Apple and LG Electronics began yesterday, with Alcatel-Lucent's Multimedia Patent Trust asserting the two electronics makers violated video compression technology used in a number of devices, notes "AppleInsider" (www.appleinsider.com).

The jury trial is being heard by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Alcatel-Lucent claims that Apple and LG infringed patents for electronic devices including phones and computers, reports "Bloomberg Businessweek" (http://macte.ch/k4yJZ).

The trial stems from a 2010 lawsuit by the Paris-based company’s Multimedia Patent Trust accusing Apple and LG Electronics of copying video-compression technology that allows data to be sent more efficiently over communications media, including the Internet and satellites, or stored on DVDs and Blu-ray discs, the article adds.

The Alcatle-Lucent SA unit claims its patents are infringed by products including the iPhone, iPod, iPad and MacBook. The unit wants a "reasonable royalty" based on what it would have been paid if a licensing agreement had been reached before the infringements began, according to "Bloomberg Businessweek."