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Further illustrating the marriage of hightech and Hollywood, Pixar Animation Studios is suing a Berkeley startup over patents covering the Oscar-winning studio's popular digital animation software.
Like other industry leaders, the Emeryvillebased studio has turned to the courts in an effort to quash a potential competitor. Pixar, which has become the de-facto standardbearer for computer-animated feature films, accuses Exluna, a small animation shop founded by a team of ex-Pixar animators, of infringing on a key patent used in Pixar's powerful fine of animation software tools.
Neither company would discuss the lawsuit, filed Feb. 27 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. In a statement posted on the company's Web site, Exluna denied Pixar's allegations, saying the company's flagship Entropy software does not use methods outlined in the Pixar patent. Beth Loughney, the company's president and CEO, would only say the two companies were trying to resolve the matter.
"We have no comment except to say we are working it out," Loughney said in a brief phone interview. "That's what businesses generally do - we work...