Remember way back when Nano-Proprietary (now Applied Nanotech Holdings) sued Canon over the makup of its SED TV joint venture with Toshiba, claiming the corporate arrangement means SED TV wasn’t a Canon subsidiary and, therefore, the company didn’t have license to Nano-Proprietary technology central to SED TVs? Canon responded by completely taking over the joint venture with Toshiba, but the damage was already done: Canon lost the lawsuit in early 2007 and delayed the launch of SED TV technology a few months later.
Tag Archive: SED
Canon Delays SED TVs
Electronics giant Canon has announced they are delaying the launch of their next-generation flat-panel SED televisions, citing the long patent licensing dispute with Nano-Proprietary over key SED technology, and saying they need time to develop production technology which will bring the manufacturing costs of SED panels low enough to make the systems commercially viable. Canon says it will offer a new launch schedule for SED televisions “at a future date.”
SED Lawsuit Against Canon Dismissed
In a brief statement, electronics giant Canon has announced that the patent infringement case brought against it by Nano-Proprietary over its SED TV product development has been dismissed, with the jury returning a verdict that Nano-Proprietary sustained no damages.
Back in February, the court found that Canon had breached its patent license agreement with Nano-Proprietary by setting up SED, Inc., as a joint venture with Toshiba and then letting SED, Inc., use Canon’s license for Nano-Proprietary’s technology. Although Canon had bought out Toshiba’s share of the joint venture in order to clarify the patent situation, the judge was unimpressed. However, the jury apparently felt that Canon’s actions hadn’t caused Nano-Proprietary any significant harm.
Canon Loses SED TV Patent Ruling
Judge Samuel Sparks of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has ruled against (PDF) electronics giant Canon in a patent dispute with Nano-Proprietary over technology planned for use in SED flat-screen televisions.
Canon originally licensed Nano-Proprietary’s technology with an eye towards manufacturing surface-conduction electron emitter displays (SED) for televisions; SED panels have the potential to offer brighter pictures than LCD displays while consuming less power. The problem is that Canon doesn’t actually make televisions, so the company got together with Toshiba (which does make televisions) set up a joint venture called SED Inc., aimed at developing SED TVs.
Canon Takes Over SED TV Joint Venture
Back in 2003, eletronics giants Canon and Toshiba went in on a joint venture to create SED Inc. to develope technology for SED flat panel televisions. SED TVs bear some slight similarities to CRT TVs, except that they have one electron emitter per pixel, rather than one big gun for the entire television screen. In October 2006, the companies announced plans to begin manfacturing SED televisions…and were slammed by a lawsuit earlier this month by Nano-Proprietary, Inc., which claimed the company needed to execute a new license for its technologies included in SED TVs. The rationale: although Canon had licensed Nano-Proprietary’s tech, that license couldn’t be transferred to SED Inc. because Toshiba holds decision-making power over the joint company.
Lawsuit May Delay SED TVs
The development of flat-panel televisions based on SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) technology may be delayed by a lawsuit filed against Canon by U.S. technology developer Nano-Proprietary Inc. of Austin, Texas.
Back in 2003, Canon and Toshiba joined forces to create a joint venture company, SED Inc, split almost 50-50 between the two companies: Canon owns 50 percent plus one share, and Toshiba owns everything else. SED Inc. was charged with developing flat-panel television displays based in SED technology; in a nutshell, SEC displays are like CRT televisions, but pack an electron emitter into every pixel so they use less power (and are far thinner) than their CRT predecessors. In October 2006, Canon and Toshiba announced they planned to start mass production of SED televisions in early 2008; however, those plans may have to be put on hold in the face of Nano-Proprietary’s suit.
Canon and Toshiba to Make SED Flat Panels
Electronics giants Canon and Toshiba have announced they plan to take on the likes and Matsushita, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony by entering the flat-panel television market in 2008. The difference? Canon and Toshiba don’t plan to crank out big-screen LCDs, plasma screens, or rear-projection panels: instead, they plan to build SED TVs, a new type of ultra-thin display which the companies say uses less power than comparable LCD and plasma displays.
Canon, Toshiba Flat-Screen SED Panels
The SED, based on a new type of flat-panel display technology, was created through the merging of Canon’s proprietary electron-emission and microfabrication technologies with Toshiba’s cathode-ray-tube (CRT) technology and mass-production technologies for liquid crystal displays and semiconductors. Like conventional CRT televisions, the SED utilizes the collision of electrons with a phosphor-coated screen to emit light. Electron emitters, which correspond to an electron gun in a CRT television, are distributed in an amount equal to the number of pixels on the display. In addition to high brightness and high definition, the SED delivers exceptional overall image quality — fast video-response performance, high contrast, high gradation levels — and low power consumption.
Canon, Toshiba Seed Venture For SED Flat TV
The two companies intend to demonstate prototypes at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
Canon and Toshiba will start selling the large-sized flat TVs in 2005, according to a report in a local Japanese newspaper.
The SED display, which is based on field emission, is Canon’s proprietary technology that Canon has been working on since the mid 80s. The company showed a 10-inch prototype panel at SID in 1998. At that time, Canon had been working with Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) to implement the SED technology into a TV set. JVC eventually pulled out of the venture.
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