San Francisco: Viacom Inc Chief Executive Philippe Dauman has told that the entertainment company could work with Google Inc down the road, regardless of a pending $1 billion claim it has lodged against the Internet search giant.

At the Web 2.0 meeting in San Francisco, Dauman said, “I suspect at some point in the future we'll work with Google.”

Viacom has taken legal action against Google and its video sharing site YouTube earlier this year, charging them of benefiting from unlawfully transferred clippings of its shows.

Earlier this week, YouTube said it had commenced public examination of a video-matching database, which assists identifying hijacked material on its Internet site.

Dauman said, “To the extent the ... announcement reflects a positive evolution in their thinking, I welcome it. Viacom seeks a standardized way of protecting copyrights on the Web. "What no one wants is a proprietary system that benefits one company to the exclusion of others.”