FTC May Get Involved In Patent Dispute Over Digital TV
from the monopoly-corrupts dept
Back in February we wrote about a patent holding firm called Rembrandt (a nod, I'm sure, to the book "Rembrandts in the Attic," which many say kicked off this decade's patent problems) that was suing basically everyone in the TV business, claiming to hold patents on digital television. This was problematic for a few reasons. First, since the FCC is mandating that everyone switch to fully digital TV systems by next year, broadcasters have little choice but to offer digital TV. Second, Rembrandt bought the patent from AT&T who had already promised to license it under RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms which Rembrandt is ignoring. Since the FTC recently smacked down another patent holder for doing the same thing, an advocacy group is now appealing to the FTC to smack down Rembrandt as well, claiming that the company is "violating antitrust and fair competition laws by abusing the monopoly provided by its patent" in order to collect "a massive tax... on the transition to digital TV." Indeed.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: digital tv, ftc, licensing, patents, rand
Companies: rembrandt
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Seems to be harming their innovation
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What law?
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Re: What law?
e
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Re: Re: What law?
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Re: What law?
Basically, yes.
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The truth be told, much of what now exists actually started in the early 80's when all of a sudden IP became the law of choice for many embarking on their legal careers. Couple this with the merger of what had been relatively small botique IP firms into some of the mega-law law firms, and the die was cast. The end result was only too predictable; litigation practitioners in such large firms quickly displaced IP practitioners who were generally prone to work out business deals rather than file lawsuits demanding extravagant amounts of $$$.
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Re:
Um. MLS, I didn't give it any credence. I simply explained where the name of the patent holding firm most likely came from, saying that "some say...".
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BTW, I am troubled that some hedge funds are getting into the business of funding litigation. While not illegal in the least, it does give "patents" a bad name.
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