Canon and Toshiba delay SED TVs - again

by Stephen Withers

Monday, 28 May 2007

Canon and Toshiba were planning to launch SED TVs in time for the holiday buying season, but the partners have now postponed them indefinitely.

The patent suit brought against Canon by Nano-Proprietary has been given as the main reason for the delay, but it seems the company also needs more time to get production costs down to a level that will allow the technology to compete with existing LCD and plasma panels.

Although Canon obtained a licence to use Nano-Proprietary's technology, it assumed that licence extended to the joint venture it formed with Toshiba. Nano-Proprietary disagreed, and the court upheld that position even though by that time Canon had acquired Toshiba's interest in the joint venture.

Earlier this month a jury held that Nano-Proprietary was entitled to keep the $US5.5 million in damages it had already received, and that the termination of Canon's licence should stand.

"Nothing about today’s verdict changes the fact that we have significant intellectual property that we believe will have to be licensed by anybody, including Canon, that wishes to sell televisions based on electron emissions in the broad geographical areas of the world where our IP is in effect," said Nano-Proprietary CEO Tom Bijou, who also expressed a hope for "cooperation and negotiation" with Canon.

Canon subsequently lodged an appeal against the determination that it had materially breached the patent licence and against the remedy imposed by the District Court.

Toshiba had been keep to get SED TVs on the market in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but is unable to start manufacturing SED TVs until Canon puts the panels into production.

SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) technology promises large (everyone seems to want a big TV), bright displays with high contrast ratios (so blacks look black rather than dark grey) and very fast response times (essential for a good pictures when watching sport and other rapidly moving images). The colour quality, video response and contrast are equivalent to CRTs, while SED has significantly lower power consumption than LCD or plasma displays.{moscomment}

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