Smart TV Industry Rocked By Alleged Patent Conspiracy From Chipmaker

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: During the pandemic, the demand for smart TVs dwindled as the supply chain for critical TV components became unreliable and consumers began tightening up on frivolous spending. Amid this smart TV demand slump, one of the world's top TV chipmakers, Taiwan-based Realtek, was hit with multiple meritless lawsuits by an alleged patent troll, Future Link Systems. These actions, Realtek said, drained its resources, made Realtek appear unreliable as a TV-chip supplier, and created "the harmful illusion of supply chain uncertainties in an already constrained industry." Determined to defend its reputation and maintain its dominant place in the market, Realtek filed a lawsuit (PDF) this week in a US district court in California. In it, the TV chipmaker alleged that Future Link launched "an unprecedented and unseemly conspiracy" with the world's leading TV-chip supplier, Taiwan-based MediaTek, and was allegedly paid a "bounty" to file frivolous patent infringement claims intended to drive Realtek out of the TV-chip market.

The scheme allegedly worked like this: Future Link "intentionally and knowingly" asked a US district court in Texas and the US International Trade Commission "for injunctions prohibiting importation of Realtek TV Chips and devices containing the same into the United States," Realtek alleged. This allowed MediaTek to reap the benefits of diminished competition in that market, Realtek claimed. Today, Reuters reported that MediaTek has officially responded to Realtek's allegations, vowing to defend itself against the lawsuit and claiming that MediaTek will supply evidence to dispute Realtek's claims.

Realtek's lawsuit seeks a jury trial to fight back against MediaTek and Future Link, as well as IPValue Management, which the complaint said owns and operates Future Link. The TV chipmaker alleged that defendants violated unfair competition laws in California, as well as federal laws. Any damages won from the lawsuit will be donated to charity, Realtek said. Realtek's complaint likens MediaTek to "robber barons of the Industrial Age," allegedly seeking to destroy competition and secure a monopoly in the TV-chip market. "With this action, Realtek seeks to stop a modern robber baron and its hired henchmen, protect itself from ongoing injury, and guard against the destruction of competition in the critical semiconductor industry by holding defendants accountable for their conspiracy," the complaint said.

Fine

[Opportunist]

Sell me a dumb TV then. I'm not picky.

I can attach my own tools to view various streams, that way I can also thwart any snooping you might want to engage in if I am dumb enough to attach your TV to a way to access the internet.

Re:

[Seven Spirals]

Yes, please, and feel free to throw in the appropriate discount for the lack of development effort on that crapware.

Re:

[kurkosdr]

At this point, Smart TV software has negative value due to all the ads it serves. Android TV already gets a TV manufacturer most of the way there, and whatever little integration they do on their end is more than offset by ads. Much like how some laptop OEMs would charge customers to remove crapware, because that software had negative value.

Removing crapware costs $$$? Yep.

[Seven Spirals]

Yes, if I had to bet one way or the other, I'd bet with you that the vendor is getting enough crapware-kickbacks that removing the shitty "OS" off the damn thing is going to cost you money, not save you money.

Re:Fine

[Luckyo]

Problem is, most people can't. They lack know how to do so.

I recently ran into this issue with my parents, where what seemed like a tiny and mostly irrelevant problem they had with tech was utterly crushing to them. They genuinely thought they'd have to replace an expensive device because of it. A fix took a minute once I diagnosed the problem in about five minutes on google. And after I talked them through it, I talked to them about technology in general, trying to understand why it felt like such a major problem to them.

One question in particular hit home really hard. My mom didn't even realize that her favorite browser firefox... didn't just come preinstalled with every TV and windows PC. She was genuinely confused when I told her it wasn't, and asked me how anyone would know how to get it then.

This is the level of understanding of this sort of technology among normal, non-IT people.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Well, the main reason is that if you need a controller for your TV, the cost for a low end control processor versus one with multiple cores and such pretty much cost the same.

So you can design a TV using a 200MHz processor and 32MB of RAM, and you'll probably find you can use a 1.5GHz quad core processor with 2GB of RAM for the same cost. With the latter, you can offer free value-added stuff by making it "smart" and thus be able to compete with all the other TVs offering smart features on the shelf.

You can

Re:

[sarren1901]

Luckyo, they managed to attach a VCR for all those years and then a DVD/bluray player. It takes even less effort to plug in an amazon firestick or an hdmi cable for a roku.

I complete agree we don't need smartTVs, especially if they are not kept update.

P.S. I'm sure your mom has her domain of intellect and knowledge but was she also the same person that couldn't set the VCR clock? Those sort of people will always need help with the most basic of technologies.

Re:Fine

[Luckyo]

My mom could plan test firing of a 200MW rated power plant and create documentation for it that would fit multiple national requirements of the kind that would make your average IT nerd go "what is this? I don't understand what any of these things mean?"

Without people like her, there would be no need for people like us, because we all need electricity to do what we do, and it's people like her that spent their entire working lives building that for us.

But that is a realm of strictly documented, tested and validated things. It's not a realm of modern IT, where it's all about "just google it and then wing it".

Smart TVs are dead

[nospam007]

Welcome the AI TVs.

They know what you want to watch, even if your don't know it, it knows even better than a Smart TV which ads to show you ALL THE TIME.

Re:

[jonwil]

AI (or algorithms) that showed me only ads for things I might actually buy (instead of endless ads for things I don't need and will never buy such as pet insurance, anti-aging creams, dishwasher cleaner, SUVs or exercise equipment) is something I would be in favor of.

And it would be better for the advertisers as well I bet (presumably under such a model, the advertisers would pay for every time their ad gets shown and if its only shown to people who might buy what they are selling, that's gotta be a good th

Re:

[nospam007]

"AI (or algorithms) that showed me only ads for things I might actually buy (instead of endless ads for things I don't need and will never buy such as pet insurance, anti-aging creams, dishwasher cleaner, SUVs or exercise equipment) is something I would be in favor of."

It doesn't work yet.

I bought a new Miele washing machine after 25 years and now I get washing-machine ads all the time even if I won't need one until 2048.

That's just stupid, using the same algorithm for WMs as for milk.

Forum shopping

[quonset]

Future Link "intentionally and knowingly" asked a US district court in Texas

Texas district courts are widely known to rubber-stamp most anything that comes their way from plaintiffs. Doesn't matter what it is, if you filed, they agree with you.

This case is another such example.

Re:

[sjames]

We can fix this!

1. Draw up papers accepting Texas' secession form the Union.
2. Tell Texas they voted on secession last year and it passed
3. If they don't believe it, tell them Joe Biden, Barak Obama, and AOC conspired to keep it a secret. (so it must be true!)
4. Use the savings in pork and federal subsidies to build a strong border.

Re:

[Retired Chemist]

Between the rest of us and Texas? I wish they would try to secede. The federal government could crush them and try their leaders for treason. I understand why the leaders of the Confederacy were pardoned, but in any other country at that time and even in modern days they would have been lucky to only been exiled rather than executed.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

You like murder too much.

Did you advocate for it when USSR broke up?

Anyway, Texas's contract with USA explicitly allows an exit.

Or maybe just don't honor the contract and murder them anyway?

What's old is new again

[bhcompy]

Taiwan-based MediaTek, and was allegedly paid a "bounty" to file frivolous patent infringement claims intended to drive Realtek out of the TV-chip market.

Who does MediaTek think they are? Creative Labs?

William Shatner almost had it

[Thoth Ptolemy]

TekWar. Realtek vs MediaTek fighting over microchips.

Not really but still funny.

Uhhh...

[easyTree]

Future Link, as well as IPValue Management

Is it just me or are they giving everyone the middle finger with their naming scheme?

I feel as though I've been slimed just reading them.

donating damages to charity shows weakness

[rta]

For some reason their "we're doing this to help society" thing is rubbing me the wrong way.

If these people damaged Realtek's business, ESPECIALLY on purpose, then it is just that they pay Realtek back. Have some pride and own it. No self-sacrifice is called for here.

Maybe it's just a cultural thing and i'm reacting negatively to their genuine altruism, but my read is that If Reltek can afford to donate the damages to charity, then the damages can't have been that serious and then this whole thing looks more like a self-aggrandizing vanity project.

Not Impressed

[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

Most Realtek chips I have encountered are second rate at best

I will take an Intel 2.5GbE chip over a Realtek version any day. Same with Intel 1GbE chips; much better and more stable than Realtek stuff.

Realtek UMS drivers always seemed to have stability & operational issues.

And when I compared features for features...Realtek always seemed to be lacking quite a few.

The real reason why Realtek brought this suit is probably more interesting than the actual suit itself.

use a dumb monitor and dongle

[dhizzle]

I've been happy with the large monitor I use instead of a spy, I mean smart, TV. The "smart" devices through which I consume content are various.