As if the DTV transition doesn’t already have enough problems, now a patent-trolling specialist claims significant license fees are due for broadcasters’ use of the ATSC digital broadcasting standard.
Rembrandt Technologies, based in Philadelphia, has filed a lawsuit against ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox claiming patent infringement for their use of the ATSC standard for digital transmissions. Also involved in the legal dispute is Harris, a maker of television transmitters based on the ATSC standard.
Rembrandt claims the networks and transmitter manufacturer are infringing on Patent No. 5,243,627, entitled “Signal Point Interleaving Technique,” which it said was “duly and legally issued” on Sept. 7, 1993, to AT&T Bell Laboratories.
Rembrandt is also suing major cable operators, including Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner. The company alleges that by offering digital cable programs, those companies infringe on a portfolio of Rembrandt’s patents related to the reception and transmission of signals based on the ATSC standard.
AT&T Bell Labs created the technologies in Rembrandt’s patent portfolio, and the portfolio is believed to have come from Paradyne, which was once a unit of AT&T/Lucent Technologies.
AT&T was a member of the HDTV Grand Alliance, established in the early 1990s. The alliance consisted of technology companies that combined their various technologies to produce the ATSC digital broadcasting system. The companies involved included AT&T, General Instrument, North American Philips, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thomson Consumer Electronics, the David Sarnoff Research Center (now Sarnoff Corp.) and Zenith Electronics (now LG Electronics).
According to information about the lawsuits published by “TVNewsday,” AT&T had promised to make the technology available on modest licensing terms in 1995 when it joined the Grand Alliance. The telco was to license patents “essential to the implementation of the [ATSC] standard …under reasonable terms and conditions on a nondiscriminatory, nonexclusive basis.”
However, for whatever reason, the Grand Alliance never created a patent pool, having only an informal understanding at the time that the members would not assert any patents and would license them for a reasonable fee.
Rembrandt specializes in taking a risk on companies or individuals who have not been able to get a successful return on their patents. Formed in 2004 by a group of scientists and investors, Rembrandt has raised $150 million to acquire patents and pursue “patent pirates.” Now, Rembrandt is demanding heavy license fees from broadcasters for use of the ATSC technology.
