Samsung Sues Polaroid and Westinghouse for ATSC Patent Infringement

Business Wire, June 16, 2008

DENVER -- MPEG LA, LLC today announced that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. ("Samsung"), a patent holder in MPEG LA's ATSC Patent Portfolio License, has filed a patent enforcement action in the U.S. District Court of Delaware against Polaroid Corporation ("Polaroid"), owned by Petters Group Worldwide, LLC, and Westinghouse Digital Electronics, LLC ("Westinghouse") for infringement of patents essential to the ATSC standard. Zenith Electronics LLC, also a participant in the ATSC Patent Portfolio program, has a suit pending against the same parties in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas for infringement of its patents essential to the ATSC standard.

According to the complaint, Polaroid and Westinghouse offer products, such as televisions, television tuners, set-top boxes and digital video recorders, which use patent-protected ATSC methods without having entered into a portfolio license offered by MPEG LA that includes these patents or a license with Samsung.

The suit seeks, among other things, monetary damages and an injunction prohibiting Polaroid and Westinghouse from using ATSC patents in their products and from offering, marketing, or importing them.

MPEG LA, LLC

MPEG LA is the world leader in alternative technology licenses, enabling users to acquire worldwide patent rights necessary for a technology standard or platform from multiple patent holders in a single transaction as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses. Wherever an independently administered one-stop patent license would provide a convenient marketplace alternative to assist users with implementation of their technology choices, the licensing model pioneered and employed by MPEG LA may provide a solution. By balancing patent users' interest in reasonable access with patent owners' interest in reasonable return, MPEG LA creates the opportunity for adoption of new technologies and fuels innovation. MPEG LA's initial licensing program for MPEG-2 digital video compression helped produce the most widely employed standard in consumer electronics history, and the MPEG LA([R]) Licensing Model has become the template for addressing other technologies. Today MPEG LA manages licensing programs consisting of essential patents in 57 countries. The ATSC Patent Portfolio License includes patents that are essential to the digital television standard (including high definition and standard television) developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and used in digital televisions sold in the United States, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and other countries. Devices that use ATSC also use and require a license under patents that are essential to the MPEG-2 digital video compression standard. MPEG LA is an independent licensing administrator; it is not related to any standards agency and is not an affiliate of any patent holder. For more information, please refer to http://www.mpegla.com.