Little old lady suing Sony, Samsung, Nokia and everyone else for infringing on her laser patents
By Thomas Ricker 
posted March 21st 2008 5:47AM
posted March 21st 2008 5:47AM
Oh sure, she looks friendly enough. But don't let her matronly, argyle looks fool you. Retired Columbia University Professor, Gertrude Neumark Rothschild, is looking to extract some cold, hard cash from a who's who of Consumer Electronics giants. Otherwise, they can forget about importing their goods into the US. Rothschild's complaint filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) on February 20th claims that some 30 companies are violating a patent she owns for light-emitting and laser diodes. Today, the ITC has agreed to investigate the matter. It's worth noting that Rothschild has already successfully tested the judicial waters with lawsuits against Philips and others -- the Philips matter was settled out of court earlier this month. In other words, her case has legs. Still, we have very little confidence in the ITC's grasp of the matter when they name "HD DVD players (e.g., Blu-ray disc players)" as products to be probed. Full list of companies named in the complaint after the break.[Via Reuters and mrontemp]
- Avago Technologies of Singapore;
- Bacol Optoelectonic Co. Ltd. of Taiwan;
- Dominant Semiconductors Sdn. Bhd. of Malaysia;
- Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., of Taiwan;
- Exceed Perseverance Electronic Ind. Co., Ltd., of China;
- Guangzhou Hongli Opto-Electronic Co., Ltd., of China;
- Harvatek Internaional Inc. of Taiwan;
- Hitachi, Ltd., of Japan;
- Kingbright Electronic Co., Ltd., of Taiwan;
- LG Electronics of Korea;
- Lite-On Technology Corp. of Taiwan;
- Lucky Light Electronics Co., Ltd., of China;
- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., of Japan;
- Motorola, Inc., of Schaumburg, IL;
- Nokia of Finland;
- Opto Tech Corporation of Taiwan;
- Pioneer Corporation of Japan;
- Rohm Co., Ltd., of Japan;
- Samsung Group of Korea;
- Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., of Japan;
- Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd., of Korea;
- Sharp Corporation of Japan;
- Shenzhen Unilight Electronic Co., Ltd., of China;
- Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd., of Japan;
- Sony Corporation of Japan;
- Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB of Sweden;
- Stanley Electric Co., Ltd., of Japan;
- Toshiba Corporation of Japan;
- Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., of Malvern, PA; and
- Yellow Stone Corporation of Taiwan.
She looks like my neibor
what the hells a neibor? is it some kind of rash?
She is your "naybore". The one who's always trying to look into your bedroom with her laser-powered binoculars. Ewww.
The title of the post and the picture just made my day.
Little old lady suing Engadget for ageist remark.
Judge: Is she little?
Is she old?
Case dismissed.
So is this how the Rothschilds get some of their cash?
I say good for her, some of these companies are rich enough, big enough and ugly enough!
Besides its not as if Sony has a clean moral record now, is it?
I think you mean 'ethical record'
I think I meant:
"Shut up syntax and grammar nazi. There's a life outside the web.".
That would be bad for you...
The web is one of the only places grammar doesn't really matter.
I wouldn't doubt that the Rothschild's are richer.
Wow. That escelated quickly.
@Derbeste
Shame mymaclife (name kinda sums it up) couldn't see that.
Had I been a Nazi I would have also pointed out the more glaring grammar issues with your post. FAIL!
People believing that grammar has no role on the web is the reason why people undermine websites such as wikipedia.
She probably needs the money to fund her latest DIY Home LASIK Kit.
@LordZargon
Don't go attacking others just because they point out your mistakes. Your use of the word "moral" instead of "ethical" was definitely not a "syntax or grammar" error. The words have entirely different meanings.
@ Sam Winter
Thanks Sam, but on reflection I should have been more sensitive to Lord, it must have taken him ages to write the post using one finger, as other people have pointed out he'll be fine as long as he stays within the web and doesn't venture out into society.
"Little old lady sues God for lack of height"
How do you measure the height of a god?
metric..
I prefer parsecs, they are a much more standard unit that even metric. I am about 0.00000000000000000000021 parsecs tall.
The 6.25 billion of Earths population using metric every day may disagree.
I believe God uses cubits.
I googled and found the following link that talks about patents a different company settled with her over (no idea if the same patents are at issue here) http://www.led-professional.com/content/view/281/62/
I really wish people don't wait till companies and technologies become huge to sue them. That way workarounds can be used that don't infringe. Maybe they could have chosen an alternate method of manufacture? It's like if a city decided to note down everytime you speed and then send you a huge bill at the end of the month. It's not sounding very ethical to me.
This obviously is not ethical, but what good it is to sue a small company that won't pay the big bucks to settle?
Well, you really don't know the background behind all of this (neither do I and I don't care enough to bother to look). She may have attempted to get the corporations to pay up without success. And, when they booted her out the door on her old and frail butt, she decided to hire some goons (of the legal persuasion) to get even.
Sometimes (most times?) companies are more apt to listen when the person doing the talking has ESQ after his/her name.
Companies aren't ethical you dolt, people are ethical.
Companies are ruthless animals that prey on the weak. You should watch the Corporation sometime. It may, perhaps, enlighten you.
JK, you will always stand up for the corporations that rob others of intellectual property, and try their best to get away with it.
9 times out of 10, they do get away with it. Companies aren't stupid, they cheat because they can.
I wonder why she is not suing Microsoft considering the green l.e.d's in the Xbox 360's. And fact that almost all 360 are made south of the boarder. That what NAFTA gets you a lot of crappy 360's on the cheap. I have also found a lot patents that bypass the process to create the l.e.d in her patent and all of them are by company's in japan that help Sony on a lot technology projects including Blu-Ray.
"I really wish people don't wait till companies and technologies become huge to sue them. "
It can take years for the Patent Office to grant a patent. In the meantime, people sometimes start infringing on it.
This is nowhere near the type of submarine patent that you're used to hearing about. The race for blue and shorter wavelength LEDs has been an intense decade-long race involving quantum mechanics that don't fall under the "obvious" category. It's exactly the type of patent that ought to be enforced to the limit. If this lady did significant research in the field, it wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
What no Apple lawsuit??
Crack, anyone?
Him no understand your comment
LADY: But all of them! All of them are stealing my laser ideas!
NURSE: Are they now?
LADY: Yes, look!
*hands nurse the list, scribbled on a t-shirt*
NURSE: I see. Well I'll be sure to hand this to matron when she arrives.
LADY: But all of them! All of them are stealing my laser ideas!
NURSE: Are they now?
LADY: Yes, look!
*Points her laser gun at the nurse and slashes her in two*
LADY: Oh, sorry, dear.
Does this mean that my sharks with lasers infringe as well?
You can't attach anything to a laser beam, let alone a shark, but you can attach lasers. Patent infringing lasers!
I stole her cookie recipe in 1989. She has patented ever since.
It's all my fault it has come to this.
Someone should sue HER for wearing that sweater.
She has no taste in fashion... or taste itself!
You gotta read the press release while listening to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu-6IppcvRo
I guess this was her retirement savings plan.
Beats the Lottery, huh ?
I think you mean i.e., not e.g.
I.e. = meaning
E.g. = for example (exempla gratis, literally "free example" or something like that)
Alright Chilly Palmer, simmer down.
Grammar police!
Everyone get your hands up in the air!
Nice try at being a complete tool, but you should know that E.g. exactly stands for "exempli gratia"- you're simply in the wrong case.
Thanks, that was information work knowing. I always wondered at the difference.
Well, to put this into perspective one should add, that the patent she refers to is in general about how to tweak your semiconductor-sandwich (LED,LD)to get blue (and other) laser light out of it.
Hence all of you owe her some, since without her research you wouldn`t have your nice HD-DVD /Blue-Ray Players.
And don't wine about sueing big companies. If you would know how ruthless these companies act on patentholders if they want their patents (sueing till he gives up is one nice option) you would think otherwise.
And last but not least: She had the frikin idea how to get these LD/LED for you and so she earns this Money bigtime.
Tobi