Irvine’s Vizio Inc., which designs and markets flat TVs, eked out a win in an ongoing battle over chip patents with Japan’s Funai Electric Co.
A few weeks ago, the International Trade Commission, a federal trade group, granted Vizio a temporary hold on a federal ban that would have prevented the company from importing certain high-definition televisions into the U.S.
The Vizio TVs at issue contain chips that were found in April to have infringed on a patent owned by Funai.
Funai sells TVs in the U.S. under the brand names Emerson, Sylvania and Philips.
Vizio said that that Funai’s infringement claims are “meritless” after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office re-examined Funai’s patent and concluded recently its patent claims are invalid.
So it’s a roundabout win for Vizio because it gives the company more time to appeal the earlier trade commission decision.
“This is a significant first step in the appellate review process,” said Laynie Newsome, vice president of sales and marketing communications. “We are confident that the federal circuit will reverse the International Trade Commission’s earlier determination and vindicate Vizio’s position in light of the recent final rejection of the patent.”
If the ban was kept in place, Vizio said it wouldn’t have been affected all that much.
“The products involved with this particular claim are obsolete and no longer in mass production,” the company said in a statement.
In a separate antitrust lawsuit filed in early February, Vizio took a jab at Funai’s way of doing business.
It said the company “is unlawfully restricting trade, misusing patent rights and monopolizing the marketplace for digital technology.”
Vizio has other intellectual property litigation pending.
On June 5 it filed a patent in-fringement claim against LG Electronics Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of South Korean consumer electronics maker LG Group.
Vizio is seeking an injunction on importing and selling certain LG high-definition TVs and is also seeking damages.
Vizio has grown rapidly in recent years, taking market share away from the big TV makers. That has made it vulnerable to patent lawsuits that some see as retaliation by big consumer electronics makers.
Earlier this year, the company said it’s backing a lobbying group that aims to lower patent fees for technologies in digital TVs.
The group alleges that TV makers routinely pass along costs for patents to consumers,up to $30 extra per TV.
Vizio signed a petition that asks the Federal Communications Commission to hold others responsible for excess charges and to impose new rules for patent licensing to end the overcharging.
Security First Acquisition
Rancho Santa Margarita-based Security First Corp., which makes security software, recently purchased Sunnyvale-based DRC Computer Corp.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Security First makes software that protects digital information in a way that goes beyond standard encryption, according to spokesman Bill Goodwin.
“When most people want to protect something, what typically happens is they will slap encryption around the outside of it like a steel ball,” he said. “What we do differently is we take that steel ball and encrypt it one bit at a time.”
One of its biggest customers is Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys Corp., a maker of servers and gear for big data centers, which has operations in Mission Viejo.
The company is looking to license its software to “anybody with tons of data to protect that needs their information secure and available, despite any disasters,” Goodwin said.
Other potential customers include the government and banks.
DRC makes software that runs processors for some of the fastest computers in the world.
It’s set to keep its Northern California office and run as a subsidiary of Security First.
Security First said that it has been using DRC’s products as part of a security product it sells.
Privately held Security First, which started in 2002, doesn’t disclose financials.
Party Hop
Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc., the top distributor of technology products, software and consumer electronics, is set to mark its 30th birthday Paris Hilton-style,with several parties around the world.
The city of Santa Ana continued the celebrity treatment for the company and proclaimed July 16 Ingram Micro Day.
Ingram itself is taking the day to recognize some of its long-tenured workers, including a handful of them that have spent nearly three decades at the company.
The company will be doing it up with some live music and a party in Santa Ana, while concurrent celebrations are in full swing around the world.
Ingram Micro workers in Chile are set to gather for karaoke and family movie night. Workers in Miami will be hosting a family picnic day. British Ingram workers will have a ’70s-themed costume party. Workers in Switzerland will get the barbecue going. In Austria, Ingram workers will have a traditional “heurigan,” which is sort of like a wine tasting party.
Ingram Micro, which sees yearly sales of more than $30 billion, had a recent market value of about $2.8 billion.
Correction
In a technology special report story that ran on June 8, Erik Ekstrom’s title should have been technology, media and telecommunications partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP in Costa Mesa.
