Sharp to monetise patents, amid focus on ultra HD TVs

Bloomberg

Sharp Corp.’s US legal battle with Hisense Electric Co. marks the start of an aggressive new campaign by the Japanese electronics company to obtain royalties on its patents as the company focuses on ultra-high-resolution televisions and “smart home” devices.
The Osaka-based Sharp plans to be more assertive when it comes to demanding patent royalties and may even start filing lawsuits against anyone found using Sharp inventions without permission, a company executive said. “As devices become more sophisticated and complex and interconnected, device developers really need to pay more attention to what patents are out there,” said Rey Roque, vice president of strategic business development for Sharp Electronics in Santa Ana, California. “You’ll see us asserting our rights—whether that leads to more litigation I can’t say at this time.”
Sharp’s main patent case so far has been against Hisense over Wi-Fi enabled televisions. The US International Trade Commission last week agreed to investigate a complaint that Hisense is infringing Sharp patents.
Hisense is fighting the patent infringement allegation in a
proceeding that could lead to a ban on US imports of some of
its televisions.
The company filed legal papers blaming Foxconn Technology Co. for Sharp’s new push. Foxconn bought a controlling stake of Sharp in August 2016, turning the electronics maker into a profitable company.
In 2015, Hisense signed an agreement to take over Sharp’s manufacturing facility in Mexico and obtain the rights to sell televisions under the Sharp brand in the US.
Sharp has filed a lawsuit accusing Hisense of selling low-quality products with the Sharp name.
“After the acquisition, Sharp and its new owner had second thoughts about the relinquishment of the Sharp brand for the US market and began a multifaceted effort to recover or undermine the rights that Hisense acquired,” Hisense said.
Roque declined to go into detail about the Hisense dispute, but said the company would consider litigation on a “case-by-case basis.” The Japanese electronics company does license its patents to “industry leaders,” Roque said, without naming companies.
The electronics market is increasingly tense as companies try to protect their profit margins while consumers demand lower prices. That could lead to efforts to cut the amount of royalty payments made on components or features. “In the past, a radio was a radio and a television was a television,” Roque said.
The push to protect its patents runs parallel to the company’s new focus. Sharp in August unveiled its new high-resolution televisions known as 8K, which the company says display images 16 times the resolution of HD TVs and at “ultimate reality, with ultra-fine details even the naked eye cannot capture.”
Sharp is also looking to extend so-called smart home devices that help people regulate heating or appliances in their homes from afar beyond the home through connected devices so that “appliances will become our partners in addressing the needs of both individual households and society as a whole.”
Still, Sharp is more often the defendant in lawsuits where patent owners file cases against large tech companies in hopes of big paydays.