A federal court of appeals last week upheld a jury’s finding that LG Electronics infringed on certain Constellation Designs patents in its NextGen TVs and affirmed the jury’s $1.68 million award for past damages as well as a $6.75 per TV royalty for future set sales.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its ruling April 28 after considering the findings of a jury trial before Judge J. Rodney Gilstrap of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. That court found LG willfully infringed upon certain Constellation Designs patents.
The appeals court affirmed some of the lower court’s findings, vacated others related to “optimization claims” and sent the case back to the original district court to re-evaluate the case with the optimization claims removed or reconsidered under the guidance of the appeals court.
Regarding penalties, the appeals court found LG willfully infringed on Constellation’s patents. Frequently, willful infringement can lead to greater damages, but the appeals court made no such recommendation.
LG Electronics announced it would stop selling televisions with NextGen TV support in September 2023, following its loss of the patent dispute with Constellation Designs. Currently, Sony, Samsung, Hisense, Panasonic, TCL and RCA offer NextGen TVs in the United States. Vendors offering NextGen TV set-top boxes include ZapperBox, ADTH, Zinwell, SiliconDust and GTMedia offer NextGen TV set-top boxes or dongles.
An LG spokesman said the company does not comment on “such legal matters.” As of this writing, Constellation Designs has not responded to a request for comment. Other requests for comment are out but have not yet received a response.
The ATSC 3 Signing Authority said last month that nearly 40 NextGen TV models from Hisense, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and TDL, account for the “vast majority” of the 18.5 million A3SA-enabled TVs sold to date.
“We have to keep in mind that this happens in the C.E. space,” said Anne Schelle, managing director of the Pearl TV business organization representing many of the country’s largest broadcast groups. “That said, the other thing to note is these patents do expire in 2028.”
“From our perspective, the market from the development side of NextGen is moving along,” she said. “We are still continuing to work on the converter box program, and if you look at the overall trend, you can’t blow this out of proportion.”
"When you look at the timing of a Report and Order [advancing the transition from 1.0 to 3.0], there is plenty of time to get devices out there regardless of whatever the outcome is."
The appeals court ruling is available online.
