Barco HDR technology is the subject of a lawsuit by Dolby over claims of IP infringement.

Barco

The launch of the HDR by Barco cinema projection system in August 2025 was a statement move by the Belgian imaging company, making a play to overtake Dolby in the technical stakes with a full HDR projection system. It seems, however, that Dolby is not taking this lying down and has filed a lawsuit that claims that Barco has infringed on two of its patents.

The case focuses on the HDR by Barco’s system’s ability to manipulate light to create high brightness and higher contrast, and, according to a report, three former Dolby employees who now work for Barco were aware of this patent: the lead engineer behind the HDR by Barco project also led the team behind Dolby Vision.

The lawsuit was filed as the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas started. In a statement sent to me, Kurt Verheggen, general counsel for Barco, said:

“Barco became aware at the start of CinemaCon that Dolby had filed a complaint. We have not yet had the opportunity to review the filing in detail and therefore will not comment on the allegations at this time. Barco will not litigate this matter in the press and will respond to the allegations in court. For more than 90 years, Barco has built its business on original innovation in visualization technology and places paramount importance on intellectual property rights, both its own and those of others.”

Dolby was contacted for comment but had not done so at the time of publication.

It’s unclear at this stage what impact the lawsuit will have on the global rollout of the HDR by Barco system, or exactly what redress Dolby is seeking. HDR by Barco system has been picked up in the U.S. by chains such as Alamo Drafthouse, B&B, and Regal, making a total of 30 so far. However, Vue International has been the biggest taker. The technology underpins its new EPIC screens across the UK and Europe and last year said it planned to have 50 locations using the tech by the end of 2027.

HDR by Barco offers much higher brightness levels than standard digital cinema. While the latter typically sits around 48 nits, Dolby Cinema achieves 48 nits – but the HDR by Barco system bests this with up to 300 nits, enabling it to meet the DCI spec for cinema-grade HDR.

In other news out of CinemaCon, Barco announced four more 2026 titles would receive an HDR by Barco grade: Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31^st), Insidious: Out Of The Further (Aug 21^st), Resident Evil (September 18^th) and Jumanji: Open World (Dec 25^th).