Sharp Sues Samsung Over LCD Patents

It's Godzilla vs. Mothra all over again... Sharp Corp and Samsung Electronics Co. are embroiled in a battle for the rights to five patents on LCD technology. The lawsuit was filed by Sharp Corp. who is suing regarding the methods Sharp claims to have developed in order to improve the quality of LCD displays. They are seeking unspecified damages, a ban on the infringing products and a jury trial. The lawsuit doesn't indicate how many offending products are involved but one would guess it is a very large number considering neither company is known for making small or limited runs of any mainstream consumer electronics products.

"We are currently in a cutthroat time in the industry, where prices of finished goods are falling so fast that any kind of technological edge one company has over the other is completely vital," said Eric Haruki, an analyst of TV technologies at market researcher IDC.

Samsung is no stranger to patents and custom technological advances, so a jury trial is bound to be fraught with endless attempts to break down the involved details so that a peer of 12 jurors can understand the issues being discussed. What is also interesting is how this will affect the other manufacturers that utilize embedded Samsung components in their displays. One would hope that any kind of ruling would have all financial issues fall to Samsung and not its licensees to resolve.