Legal Dispute Could Boost Cost of DTV

A small Pennsylvania company's patent lawsuits could hamstring the government's $1.5 billion effort to make the transition to digital television easier on consumers' wallets. Rembrandt Inc. owns a patent on technology that it says is part of the digital television broadcasting standard used by the TV networks. Rembrandt is suing 14 companies, including Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, CBS Corp. and News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting for patent infringement and wants millions of dollars in royalties. The American Antitrust Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group, asked federal regulators last month to bar Rembrandt from enforcing its patent. Otherwise, Rembrandt's suits could add ''tens of millions'' of dollars to the cost of digital TV, most of which will likely be passed on to consumers, the nonprofit said. ''This is a massive tax that Rembrandt is trying to place on the transition to digital TV,'' said David Balto, an antitrust attorney who co-wrote a petition the AAI submitted March 26 to the Federal Trade Commission.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/04/17/daily.5/