Customs ‘Withdraws’ Ruling that Vizio Didn’t Infringe Funai Patent, Vizio Says
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has “withdrawn” its July 8 finding that Vizio’s TVs don’t infringe Funai’s channel-mapping patent (CED July 10 p3), Vizio attorney Gregory Castanias said in a letter filed Monday at the U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit. The appeals court is weighing Vizio’s motion for a stay in the International Trade Commission’s ruling that sided with Funai.
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The customs decision, which Vizio publicized in a press release the same day the company says it was handed down, hasn’t been released publicly, and Vizio attorneys have refused to share it with Funai lawyers, Funai told the appeals court. Castanias said customs informed Vizio late Friday of its decision to withdraw the July 8 ruling, but didn’t give a reason, only that it will be replaced by another ruling, without saying when. Customs officials couldn’t be reached for comment by our deadline Tuesday.
Custom’s July 8 ruling in Vizio’s favor, “if true, undermines completely” Vizio’s showing of irreparable harm, Karl Kramer, attorney for Funai, said in a July 9 reply to the appeals court. Funai’s attorneys asked Vizio for a copy of the customs order, but haven’t received it, Kramer said. The ruling will likely be posted on a public Web site “in the next few months,” Kramer told us in an e-mail. Funai also may seek its release under the Freedom of Information Act, he said. Vizio’s request for a stay “fails” because its arguments on the merits of the “underlying patent issues are devoid of any support on the record,” Kramer said.
Custom’s decision to withdraw the order doesn’t eliminate the “serious underlying problem” raised by the ITC exclusion order, Castanias said. Because the customs order isn’t binding on the ITC, Vizio is under “constant risk of an enforcement action” by Funai, he said. While Vizio believes its redesigned products don’t violate the ITC order, it’s “equally confident that Funai will disagree,” Castanias said. Unless Funai stipulates, contrary to prior legal positions, that Vizio TVs using redesigned chips can be imported and sold in the U.S., “we do not see how the recent Customs ruling ‘undermines completely'” Vizio’s showing of irreparable harm, Castanias said in his letter. Castanias didn’t reply to several queries seeking comment.
The ITC found in April that Vizio’s TVs infringed Funai’s channel-mapping patents subject to a 60-day presidential review period. President Barack Obama decided in June not to overturn the ITC decision, setting the stage for the appeal. Vizio asked the appeals court for an emergency order blocking enforcement of the ITC decision pending appeal. Funai, which filed an ITC with last fall, acquired the channel-mapping patent from Thomson in February 2007.