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Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sony Sue Vizio for MPEG-2 Patents
The lawsuit, filed June 2 in Manhattan, alleges Vizio violated 15 patents for MPEG-2 compression technology.
MPEG-2 compresses movies so they can be broadcast and stored on DVDs.
The Irvine, Calif.-based Vizio released a statement saying, "Vizio's suppliers have licenses for the MPEG-2 patents, and Vizio believes that these licenses extend to Vizio's products.
"Vizio has notified its suppliers of the lawsuit and expects full support and cooperation by them in the defense of the lawsuit.
"Accordingly, Vizio does not believe that the suit will have a material adverse impact on Vizio's business."
The companies suing Vizio made similar claims in an April lawsuit against Target over its Trutech-brand TVs.
According to DisplaySearch, Vizio shipped 11 percent of all LCDs in the United States in Q4 2007. Samsung and Sony owned 12.8 and 12.6 percent of the LCD market share in Q1 '08, respectively.
Vizio's sales have increased from $700 million in 2006 to just under $2 billion last year.
Vizio HDTVs are sold in Circuit City, Costco, Wal-Mart and other retailers.
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5 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Looks like Sony and Samsung are sick of Vizio driving prices down, and lawsuits are the only way they feel they can compete? It used to be that Vizio sets couldn’t compare in quality, but that’s changing. And obviously, the other companies feel it hurts…
Are you saying that Vizios compare in quality? Thats laughable..
Nope. Not yet. But they’re growing closer every several months, and by sales figures, it’s obvious that the typical US consumer feels the Vizio product is a good enough value for the money. The performance gap has been closing, and this obviously has Samsung and Sony very worried. Personally, I’m happy that consumers have a decent low-cost choice.
Is there really any doubt that this is an attempt to destroy a company that has been stealing name brand sales? Vizio has shown that a decent HDTV doesn’t have to be over $2000 and that the name brands are just being greedy. Ive had 2 Vizio’s so far and have been quite happy with what I have for half the price. In fact just the other day my friend was over, and after he saw my Vizio with a correctly configured screen, tried to get me to trade it with his Samsung.
This lawsuit is rediculous and similar to the AT&T;(Bell Labs) vs Microsoft lawsuit where AT&T;accused MS of not paying a license fee for the MP3 codec.Microsoft won that lawsuit because they had a deal with Fraunhofer.
If tv manufacturers had to pay a license for every format out there the cost to consumers would be enormous.Let the providers pay the license fee(cable,satellite,DVD player,etc).