Lawsuit Lament: Round 1 of Vizio vs. Funai drawing to a close

Round one of the legal battle between Vizio and Funai is rounding down now, and it appears to be a huge victory for Vizio.

U.S. Customs has ruled that all VIZIO TVs do not infringe on Funai’s Patent 6,115,074 — which was actually rejected by the Patent Office a few months ago, so the point may have been moot anyway.

With the USPTO and US Customs now agreeing with Vizio (for now), all the bureaucratic stuff is in place and Vizio TV units can enter the US on their journey to homes all across the country. This is huge news for Vizio and all of their stockholders (and us, who as HDTV lovers will benefit from the lower prices and more competition).

Next up is actually Vizio’s countersuit against Funai for filing the first lawsuit – don’t you just love legal drama? Makes TNT look positively tame.

The Battle Rages On: Vizio vs. Funai, Chapter 3 (or is it 4?)

Yes, it’s like watching two bruised prize fighters swinging away in a blood-soaked ring by now, but Vizio has struck back again against Funai, suing them for patent violations and trying to stop Funai from selling and importing their TVs.

They recently claimed the title of “#1 shipping HDTV panel company in the US”, and perhaps that has them thinking they’re the big boy on the playground.

Vizio’s co-founder Laynie Newsome even stated for the record that unlike Funai, Vizio’s patent line has not previously been rejected by the USPTO. We’re sure that made Funai’s boardroom a lively place to be that day.

Funai ships Sylvania, Philips, Magnavox and other big-brand name products (“declining market share” names, according to Vizio…ouch!), so odds are it’ll get settled somehow or another, and we can all get back to marveling at our HDTVs and leave the courtroom to other sectors of the consumer market.

More about the lawsuit in their press release here.

Good News, Bad News: Flat-Panel TV sales surge (for some); Vizio the king of the hill

We’d previously reported that Vizio was the big shot among the LCD TV makers right now, but new statistics compiled by DisplaySearch tells us exactly how much the flat-panel TV market has expanded over the previous year. This is all good news for the future of HD TV.

The numbers: over 7.2 million flat-panels were sold during Q1 of 2009, which is a 23% jump over the units sold from the first quarter of 2008. That’s a HUGE jump.

DisplaySearch also reconfirms Vizio’s #1 position on the HDTV front, with 18.9% of the market share, far above the 8.5% earned by legal rival Funai (producer of HDTVs for Sylvania, Emerson and other “budget” names).

Higher end names like Sony weren’t able to steer clear of the rough economic waters, and ended up with their sales decreasing over last quarter.

The Tide Turns: Funai wins victory over Vizio

Just when we reported that Vizio had the upper hand in a battle with Funai that started months ago, the U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled for Funai, and have blocked importing of Vizio HDTVs – for now anyway. This is a huge turnaround for a case that many felt was already pretty much a done deal.

According to Bloomberg President Obama it has be reviewed by an appeals court (yes, they immediately appealed), but now Vizio has to post a bond of $2.50 per unit to ship them internationally. Not a king’s ransom, but still…ouch.

Vizio responded by saying its no problem and it will be business as usual for them, but did post this press release to several blogs and news agencies. This could get ugly, folks.

Declaration of War: Vizio asks FCC to step in to punish Funai

The brewing war between Vizio and Funai stepped up a notch today as Vizio formally asked the FCC to step in and punish Funai for various patent offenses. It’s getting a little ugly, as far as corporate battles go.

Vizio has filed an lawsuit against Funai just a scant few days ago (written about here on our site), they’ve taken the offensive by asking that the FCC make Funai (quote from a statement filed by Vizio) ”comply with patent licensing conditions imposed by the FCC when it adopted the digital television standards for the United States.”

Vizio also asked the FCC to “order Funai to cease its unreasonable and discriminatory patent enforcement policies while the FCC considers a pending petition for declaratory ruling.”

No word on any reply by the FCC. My money is on that the FCC will slap Funai on the hands, but it won’t get much beyond that. Nothing like a little soap opera to make the world of HD more interesting.