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Little old lady suing Sony, Samsung, Nokia and everyone else for infringing on her laser patents

Thomas Ricker
Updated ·2 min read

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 legislative 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.