It's been a while since we've heard about Canon's legal troubles with SED, but it sounds like things are taking a turn for the better -- the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Canon had not broken its contract with Nano-Proprietary (now called Applied Nanotech Holdings) since Canon is now the sole owner of its previous joint venture with Toshiba, SED Inc. The court also reinstated Canon's license to the SED tech, but since Canon stopped working on the tech last year, it'll probably be a while before we see any SED displays actually show up. We'll see how it goes down -- hopefully those rumors of a skunkworks SED project inside Canon will make this all seem like a bad dream someday.

[Thanks, Alex]

After being hampered by habitual delays both legal and technical, it looks like the long-awaited über-tech of the display world may finally be on the cusp of reaching market, as Canon is reportedly developing a way to build surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) TVs without using contentious IP. Specifically, Japanese newspaper Asahi is reporting -- without citing sources -- that Canon is working on a "non-carbon" method of producing the sets that bypasses the Nano-Proprietary patents at the heart of that lawsuit. Still no hint on when we'll actually be able to install one of these models in our home theater, but the promise of unrivaled black levels, brightness, and contrast could well have us drinking the SED Kool-Aid for years to come.

[Via Bloomberg, thanks Dr. MORO]

If you're one of the many hoping to see Toshiba join Sony in the OLED TV game, well, we've got bad news. While Tosh will continue its efforts to commercialize small OLEDs for cellphones and such, they have shelved plans for that 30-inch OLED TV due to manufacturing costs. At least through 2010 when the effort might again, become viable. Oh, and they commented on their SED tech too. You remember, the 100,000:1 sets they told us would hit the market in late 2007. No change, no SEDs on the horizon. Ouch, was it something we said?

[Via Impress]

Damn, not another SED television delay. Yup, Canon and Toshiba just announced the postponement of the "late 2007" launch of their SED televisions citing the prolonged patent lawsuit with Nano-Proprietary as the reason. Presumably, Canon is in no mood to strike a new licensing agreement with both Nano-Proprietary and Toshiba as required by a previous ruling which sided with Nano-Proprietary. Wait, it gets worse. Not only has the litigation delayed the launch of Toshiba's 55-incher with 100,000:1 contrast, Canon also announced that they've stopped work on the technologies required to bring production costs down to that of LCDs and plasmas. That calls into question the commercial viability of the technology in the long run. Whatever, we've had it, we're turning our attention to OLED -- hear than Sony and Toshiba? You'd better not let us down.

Nano-Proprietary's fraud lawsuit against Canon in a Texas court has been dismissed, with a jury saying no damages had been sustained, since no products have actually shipped. Nano-Proprietary holds patents to some of the technology behind SED, and licensed it to Canon in 1999. Canon then brought Toshiba in as a manufacturing partner, and Nano filed suit. Now that all claims against Canon USA have been dropped, Canon doesn't have to pay any additional damages to Nano beyond the price of the original license -- but because the original SED patent licensing agreements with Canon have also been scrapped, rights to build the next-generation television have to be negotiated all over again.

[Via TG Daily]

We're down to the last three, everybody -- the biggies. And sure, it may be 2007 now, but it's still entirely possible for you to cast your ballot for the Most Anticipated Gadget of 2007! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Wednesday, April 18th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: Apple iPhone, Apple iPod (6g), Nokia N95, Optimus Maxiumus keyboard, PSP 2, SED HDTVs, and Vista / CableCARD PCs.

We all had high hopes that SED TVs wouldn't become another case of "what could have been," but unfortunately for everyone, things aren't looking too bright right about now. Last we heard, Canon was reportedly all set to buy out Toshiba's display stake, theoretically squashing Nano-Proprietary's claim that licensing agreements would be breached if Tosh remained in the mix, but it seems that things just can't be so easy. A federal judge has now ruled that Canon "violated its agreement with Texas-based Nano-Proprietary by forming a joint television venture with Toshiba," and while "damages still need to be determined," it's fairly clear who will come out the victor in this scenario. Still, this just appears to be yet another snag in the development of new nanotube sets, and while we should all just be used to it by now, that glimmer of hope that Canon and Nano-Proprietary "could now develop a new licensing agreement" is still (currently) alive.

There's not too many technologies that eventually surfaced after hitting as many snags as these long-awaited SED TVs, but it looks like the final hurdle may finally be overcome. Canon has just announced that it will buy out Toshiba's stake in the pair's joint venture in order to get that pesky Nano-Proprietary patent lawsuit off their collective backs. The lawsuit claimed that its original agreement to license technology to Canon did not extend to Toshiba, thus presenting quite the quandary when Toshiba kept trying to get its SED displays out to showroom floors. SED TV production, however, is still up in the air, as Canon said that prior plans to erect a $1.49 billion manufacturing facility in Japan is now "under review," and an analyst even mentioned that the company might end up "reconsidering growth drivers to replace SED." Nevertheless, Canon is still clinging to the idea of popping out SEDs for now, although it was mentioned that it would be "on a smaller scale," which isn't apt to give these elusive sets any kind of price advantage whenever it lands. Interestingly, Toshiba still stated that if things went smoothly, it would buy some of the manufactured SED displays directly from Canon and throw its own logo on it, theoretically bypassing the lawsuit and simultaneously snubbing Nano-Proprietary. But hey, we've got no qualms with a little joint venture competition, and considering how every other HDTV price is falling through the floor, we'll bet they need it.

[Thanks, Greg]

Well, it looks like there's more than just "technical issues" holding up production of Toshiba's long-awaited SED TVs and keeping them away from this year's CES, with Japan Today reporting that a US lawsuit may now delay the construction of a plant to produce the high-end TV sets. The suit comes from US-based Nano-Proprietary, which had an agreement with Canon (Toshiba's partner in the SED biz), but apparently is not so keen on Canon sharing its patents with its new best buddy Toshiba. Exactly how much, if any, this latest development will delay Toshiba's planned late 2007 launch of its SED sets remains to be seen, though it sure wouldn't be the first time the launch date got pushed back.

If you had high hopes of seeing Toshiba's "soon-to-be-released" SED TV showcased at CES in just a few weeks, well, you can probably already read the writing on the wall. Unsurprisingly, the set has seemingly hit another snag on its journey to retail reality, as Toshiba has announced that "technical issues" will keep the 55-inch surface conduction electron emitter display from being present at the show. While another delay hasn't exactly been confirmed, in all likelihood there's yet another one behind the scenes, and it could be due to the tension between Canon (Toshiba's partner) and Nano-Proprietary. Reportedly, the two firms are in "closed-door settlement talks" over licensed technology to be used on SED TVs, and the matters at hand could be forcing Toshiba's hand to hold back at CES. Nevertheless, it's a shame we won't be getting up close and personal with the mystical display in just a few weeks, but Toshiba feels that the issue(s) should be "resolved soon," and insinuated that we'd see a demo here in the States before too long.

SED could hold the greatest promise in the world of HDTV, but when? Here at Engadget we get excited about SED because it holds the promise to release us from the compromises we are forced to face today -- we feel like we have to have that big TV hanging on the wall, but miss the great contrast ratios we have enjoyed for years on our CRTs. This week SED inc, the joint effort between Canon and Toshiba, demoed the first SED with a 100,000:1 contrast ratio at the FPD International 2006 in Pacifico Yokohama convention center; previous models we saw at CES were only 50000:1. There is still no solid release date and all indications point to 2008.

Remember that laser-powered projection TV announced by Mitsubishi earlier this year? Well, another prototype was turned out again today in Australia only this time, by Arasor, the Australian company that will manufacture the unique optoelectronic chip central to the laser projection device developed by Silicon Valley-based Novalux. The new sets are touted to be half the price, twice as good, and use a quarter of the electricity of conventional plasma and LCD TVs and be half the weight and depth of modern plasmas. That "twice as good" statement comes from the tech's ability to up the color content from 30-35% of what the eye can see to 90% for a "lifelike image" on the display. Set to launch in time for the 2007 holidays under Samsung and Mitsubishi brands (among others), Novalux's top-dog, Jean-Michel Pelaprat, went so far as to predict that laser television would come to dominate the market above 40-inches, displacing plasmas altogether. Hmm, well, possibly on a long enough timeline. However, with mass produced SED TVs coming in 2008 and big-azz "Full-HD" LCDs and high-contrast plasma panels on the horizon, don't count on manufactures turning their backs on those massive investments in LCD and plasma technology just yet kid.

[Thanks, David W. and everyone who sent this in]

Canon & Toshiba brought SED out at CEATEC 2006 to show that this CRT in a flat panel's body will finally be hitting shelves in limited quantities by late 2007, and entering mass production in 2008. Leading the charge will be these 1080p 55-inch models with 450 nits of brightness, 50,000:1 contrast ratio (yes, you read that right), stunning 1ms response time...and no price tag yet. Part of the delay for SED has been so Canon and Toshiba can improve cost effectiveness to accompany the incredible specs, but with Samsung, Sharp and Sony releasing "Full HD" LCDs in the 50-inch range for around 5 large this fall, the market in 2008 could be tough to crack.

[Via Reuters]

Yeah, we know that Toshiba and Canon promised us a complete line-up of SED TVs by March of this year, and we don't quite buy their "drop in LCD / Plasma prices caused the delay" excuse, but we'll let them off the hook just this once. According to the slacking partner companies, we should expect to see mass-market availability of SED HDTVs by 2008, just in time for the next major sports event / HDTV-push: the Beijing Olympics. The make or break factor for SED is how much it's going to cost consumers, so it's not encouraging to hear Canon chairman Fujio Mitarai say "we have not yet established the manufacturing technology for mass-producing SEDs at low cost." With the price of Plasmas and LCDs dropping all the time, they better figure out how to make SED TVs cheap, otherwise they run the risk of the benefits of SED -- CRT performance in an LCD sized package -- becoming irrelevant to the average consumer.

[Via HDBeat]

Forget SED, we're already on to bigger and badder ways to provide our eyeballs with those sweet sweet photons. What's new and hip this week is a polymer pixel technology developed by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. They've built a grid of 10 pixels, each 80 micrometers across -- hardly a challenger to a 70-inch LCD, but its what's under the hood that has us salivating. Each pixel is built of a polymer "muscle" that flexes when a current is applied. Light is reflected through a "diffraction grating," making only one wavelength of light visible at a time from each pixel, but allowing for use of the full color spectrum -- something not possible with the current method of mixing RGB LCD pixels. It sounds like actual displays from the tech are a long way off -- researchers are currently working on ways to limit the pixels to visible parts of the light spectrum, and power consumption will need some work as well -- but our hopes are high for a display size war within the next 10 years or so.

[Via Slashdot]