Wi-Lan Inc. v. Sansui America, Inc.

The Federal Circuit has just upheld the dismissal of two Quarterhill Inc. smart TV cases against Sharp and Vizio after rejecting evidence central to its infringement claims as inadmissible. In an April 6 precedential decision (2020-1041), the appellate court agreed with Delaware District Judge Leonard Stark that plaintiff Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN), Quarterhill’s licensing arm, could not rely on certain documents obtained through litigation: an alleged printout of certain source code for the video chipsets at issue and related explanatory declarations. WiLAN had offered that evidence in lieu of the source code itself, which the NPE had been unable to procure from the chipsets’ third-party manufacturers through discovery.

Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN) has filed suit against MediaTek (1:17-cv-00554), asserting a single patent (6,359,654) already at issue in the publicly traded NPE’s five-year-old, digital television campaign. The complaint targets MediaTek- and MStar-branded image/video processing chips and chipsets that allegedly implement the “MDDi de-interlacing process” purportedly claimed in the ‘654 patent. WiLAN contends that MediaTek became aware of that patent at least as early as May 2015 because Sharp, a campaign defendant at that time, requested indemnification from MediaTek for the Sharp accused products that incorporated MediaTek chips.

Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN) expanded its litigation campaign targeting digital televisions, filing three suits against ON Corporation (1:15-cv-00786), Sansui (1:15-cv-00787), and Vizio (1:15-cv-00788). The complaints against ON and Vizio assert three patents concerning image display (5,847,774; 6,359,654; 6,490,250). Only the ‘654 patent is asserted against Sansui. In all three cases, the defendants’ digital televisions and display components are at issue.