Flat-Screen Makers Face Patent Lawsuits in U.S.

Elitist_Phoenix writes "Reuters reports two industrial manufacturers, Guardian Industries Corp. and Honeywell International Inc., have sued dozens of companies in the global PC and video display businesses in a U.S. federal court to try to recoup royalties on liquid-crystal technology.Guardian Industries, a maker of industrial glass, and Honeywell, known for making weapons systems, assert in filings in the U.S. District Court in Delaware that their intellectual property for liquid crystal displays, used in notebook computers, TVs, and cellular phones, have been infringed."

Comments

Short summary :)

[kompiluj]

For those who don't like to read long articles. In the LCD business everybody infringes someone's patents. However, up till now, nobody has sued noone, because it would end in immediate counterclaim. Unfortunately Honeywell does not make LCD's, and this makes them invulnerable.
I think that such claims will soon open the eyes of big businesses to threat they are facing. It is not only open source that is at risk. If you produce something (e.g. Windows) and you have a lot of money (e.g. Microsoft) then you are under threat too. The patent law sword has two edges.

Re:Honeywell

[Mycroft_514]

Honeywell was also a computer manufacturer for many years, but almost nobody remembers that. And some of GCOS (The Honeywell OS) has come down to Linux too, thru the intermediate steps of UNIX (I'm talking interface, not stolen code here folks, don't jump on me all at once.)