RealD ITC Complaint vs. MasterImage3D Is 3rd Volley in Companies' Patent Battle
The U.S. International Trade Commission is seeking comments by Nov. 25 on any public interest issues raised by a RealD complaint alleging Section 337 Tariff Act violations against rival 3D cinema supplier MasterImage 3D, the commission said in a Federal Register notice published Monday.
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The complaint, which RealD filed Nov. 7, names MasterImage 3D and its South Korean subsidiary as respondents, alleging violations of four RealD patents. It seeks limited exclusion and cease-and-desist orders to bar the infringing 3D cinema products from entering the U.S. RealD and MasterImage 3D representatives didn’t comment.
RealD thinks barring imports of MasterImage 3D equipment would not harm the public interest because consumers "would not be deprived of products necessary for any important health or welfare need," its ITC complaint said. Excluding MasterImage 3D products also "will not have a substantial effect on the market," RealD said. MasterImage 3D has sold few if any 3D cinema systems, so barring its products wouldn’t hurt "current systems or customers," it said. "RealD is fully capable of supplying systems to meet any projected growth in demand in the U.S."
The filing of the RealD complaint against MasterImage 3D is the third volley hurled this year between the companies in their seesaw legal battle dating to March, when RealD slapped MasterImage with a patent infringement suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. MasterImage 3D responded to the suit by challenging the validity of the RealD patent portfolio at the Patent and Trademark Office, MasterImage 3D said last month in a blog post.
MasterImage 3D pursued the PTO action hoping for a "faster legal resolution" than just defending against the suit in federal court, its blog post said. "In the opinion of MasterImage 3D, RealD’s improper patent protection stalls competition in the 3D business." In its PTO challenge, "MasterImage 3D asserts that RealD’s patents claim to have invented techniques that have been well-known for decades and should never have been granted."
There’s much at stake in the patent battle for RealD, which earlier this month announced it’s "extremely serious" about reducing costs amid the downturn in 3D movie-watching and the fact that a meaningful CE business has never materialized for RealD. The cost reductions mean RealD’s plan by 2015 to commercialize "intelligent backlight" technology for smartphones and tablets through third-party licensees is off the table, the company said (see 1411040031).