Smart TV industry rocked by alleged patent conspiracy from chip maker

Smart TV industry rocked by alleged patent conspiracy from chip maker

9 months ago
Anonymous $KxGqLmj_R3

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/smart-tv-industry-rocked-by-alleged-patent-conspiracy-from-chip-maker/

During the pandemic, the demand for smart TVs dwindled, as the supply chain for critical TV components became unreliable and consumers began tightening up on frivolous spending. Amid this smart TV demand slump, one of the world's top TV chip makers, Taiwan-based Realtek, was hit with multiple meritless lawsuits by an alleged patent troll, Future Link Systems. These actions, Realtek said, drained its resources, made Realtek appear unreliable as a TV-chip supplier, and created "the harmful illusion of supply chain uncertainties in an already constrained industry."

Determined to defend its reputation and maintain its dominant place in the market, Realtek filed a lawsuit this week in a US district court in California. In it, the TV-chip maker alleged that Future Link launched "an unprecedented and unseemly conspiracy" with the world's leading TV-chip supplier, Taiwan-based MediaTek, and was allegedly paid a "bounty" to file frivolous patent infringement claims intended to drive Realtek out of the TV-chip market.