DTV Patent War Watch (10)

May 26, 2010: Vizio scored a victory in this round that could soon conclude its dispute with Funai, when the Federal Circuit ruled that Vizio’s work-around (design-around) DTVs do not satisfy the “suitable for use,” “for identifying,” or “for decoding” limitations in claims 1, 5, and 23 of U.S. Patent No. 6,115,074 . Vizio, Inc. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n, No. 2009-1386 (Fed. Cir. May 26, 2010). The Federal Circuit remanded this case back to the ITC for an order consistent with its decision. In other words, the ITC will presumably modify its exclusion order to allow Vizio’s design-around DTVs to be imported into the U.S.

Note: Funai has a pending enforcement proceeding against Vizio regarding the design-around products. Presumably, that proceeding may end soon in Vizio’s favor in light of this Federal Circuit decision.
In a related U.S. Customs ruling in favor of Amtran Logistics, Inc., TPV International (USA), Inc., and Envision Peripherals, Inc., the U.S. Customs ruled in August 5, 2009, that the DTVs containing three semiconductor chips identified as Model BCM35243 (Broadcom), Model MT5382PTR (MediaTek), Model ZR39775HGCF-B (Zoran), are not subject to Exclusion Order 337-TA-617. The U.S. Customs also ruled in favor Vizio on July 8, 2009.

The Federal Circuit decision did not specify what chips Vizio’s design-around DTVs use and the U.S. Customs has not published its ruling in favor of Vizio. It is possible, however, that Vizio’s design-around DTVs use the same above-referenced semiconductor chips.