Realtek this week sued rival MediaTek in federal court in Northern California for colluding with patent holders to put Realtek out of business. Reuters reports that Realtek has asked the court to protect itself from ongoing damages and protect the market from unfair competitive practices as MediaTek intends to dominate the smart TV and set-top box market. claims to be
It’s no secret that various patent advocacy groups (PAEs) (in legal terms for patent holders) take patents and sue various designers for royalties. In 2019, MediaTek entered into a patent licensing agreement with Future Link and its owner IPValue, licensing some of the first issued patents to NXP Semiconductor and Philips. It’s a fairly typical license agreement, but it contained confidential terms involving his MediaTek’s demanding Future Link deeds against rivals, including Realtek.
Future Link filed a patent infringement suit against Realtek on April 13, 2021, alleging that the chip designer infringed two patents related to TV SoCs. Future Link reportedly said that by the end of 2021, he had also filed two patents to expand his list of allegations against Realtek, after which he withdrew some of the claims. The point here is that Future Link claims that all of his Realtek products that use Arm’s AXI interface for multicore SoCs infringe the company’s patents. This means that virtually all Realtek TV chips use their IP illegally and use their IP illegally. According to Reuters, which cited the complaint, this would eliminate a rival for Mediatek, which already controls 60% of the TV SoC market.
Realtek didn’t know at the time that Future Link’s actions were inspired by rival MediaTek, the company says.
“In April 2022, a shocking revelation came to light regarding a seemingly innocuous contract,” said Realtek. “Investigation found that prior to the commencement of the lawsuit against Realtek, the licensing agreement between MediaTek, IPValue and Future Link contained a confidential litigation “bounty” clause heretofore hidden from the public and Realtek. became clear. […]. The specific details of this plan are still withheld from the public as Future Link has managed to keep the arrangement hidden under confidentiality obligations and non-disclosure orders. ”
On April 12, 2022, an ITC administrative law judge said the license agreement between Future Link and MediaTek contained a lawsuit demand against Realtek.
“At the very least, unfair competition grounds appear to justify Realtek’s action against Future Link or its business partners.” ALJ wrote.
Realtek says its move is aimed at defending itself against modern monopolies and their allies, keeping the semiconductor industry competitive, and holding criminals MediaTek, Future Link, and IPValue accountable. It is said that Any damages Realtek recovers from this action will be donated to charity.
“As Realtek seeks to protect the public interest in this lawsuit, Realtek will donate the recovered damages to charity,” the company said.
MediaTek, Future Link and IPValue have not commented on the matter.
Source: Reuters, Reuters (PDF)
