Patent Office takes second look at JPEG – vnunet.com
I don’t know much about video codecs, but from what I understand jpeg is used in mpeg some how. Maybe I’m totally off … So if mpeg uses jpeg, then mpeg should also be considered a ‘prior art’ situation.
The challenge there being that you can improve on other pattents, and it’s perfectly legal to pattent your invention as long as it’s a new spin on an old concept.