Los Angeles, CA — October 10, 2013
Lee Tran Liang & Wang LLP (LTLW) scored another patent victory for client VIZIO, Inc. against an infringement lawsuit brought by plaintiff and non-practicing entity, Oplus Technologies, Ltd. On October 3, 2013, the Hon. Mariana R. Pfaelzer of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted summary judgment of invalidity and non-infringement on two patents held by Oplus in favor of VIZIO.
In this case, filed in December 2011, Oplus alleged that certain VIZIO televisions infringed 10 patent claims from two patents related to methods of video signal processing, particularly deinterlacing and error correction. Video processing in the accused televisions is performed by chipsets contained in VIZIO televisions, and the methods and algorithms used therein are trade secrets of the third-party manufacturers of the chipsets. The Court found, as argued by VIZIO, that there was a complete absence of evidence to support either direct or indirect infringement by VIZIO. The Court also found that every element of one of the patents was described in a prior art publication, and therefore the patent was invalid.
“We are extremely pleased by the court’s findings,” said LTLW name partner Enoch Liang. “This victory marks LTLW’s second Summary Judgment victory this year for VIZIO, in patent infringement cases brought by patent trolls. We will continue to voraciously defend VIZIO against shakedown and meritless lawsuits that have no application to VIZIO products.”
VIZIO was represented by LTLW and Glaser Weil.
Oplus was represented by Chicago patent troll firm Niro Heller & Niro.