ITC Reverses ALJ's Findings of Violations in LCD Devices Patent Case
AU Optronics LCD panels didn’t infringe Thomson Licensing patents, the International Trade Commission ruled. The commission upheld an administrative law judge’s finding of no violation by AU Optronics, but reversed the administrative law judge’s finding that Chimei Innolux infringed a patent held by Thomson, and returned the case to administrative law judge to determine whether certain claims are invalid in view of the ViewFrame II+2 prior art, said the International Trade Commission.
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Administrative Law Judge Robert Rogers ruled in January after a trial that AU Optronics didn’t infringe the five Thomson patents. Thomson filed a complaint with the ITC in 2010, seeking to bar import of AU Optronics panels. Thomson also sued AU Optronics along with Qisda, BenQ and Realtek in U.S. District Court, Wilmington, Del., for patent infringement in September 2010. Chimei and MStar were later added to the case. Rogers said Chimei, along with any Qisda or BenQ products incorporating Chimei’s product, infringed one patent. The federal court case was stayed pending the outcome of the ITC investigation.
AU Optronics said in a statement it was "pleased" by the decision, but didn’t comment further. Thomson officials weren’t available for comment.
Thomson had alleged AU Optronics and other companies infringed six patents granted between 1991 and 2000 and assigned to Xerox, Thomson and General Electric. The patents are all owned by Technicolor’s Thomson Licensing. The first of the patents, assigned General Electric in 1991, describes a thin-film field-effect transistor (TFT) with a gate electrode on a substrate and covers a thick layer of silicon nitride that’s design to provide high density and dielectric strength. The last of the patents was issued in 2000 to Thomson for a method for line-by-line control of a display with multiple picture elements.
Thomson and AU Optronics have long battled in the courts over alleged patent infringement. Thomson earlier filed a complaint with the ITC alleging color TV receivers and display monitors from BenQ and AU Optronics violated its video-related patents.
(See ITT's Online Archives 10112410 for summary of the institution of this investigation, and 12012524 for summary of ITC request for comments on remedy in this investigation.)