Philips have been left seriously embarrassed and is set to be sued for more than $1.7 million by Taiwanese Company Teco following a raid at the recent IFA 2008 Expo in Berlin by German police who did not know the difference between a TV and an MP 3 player or DVD player.
Information supplied to German courts by Sisvel and Philips led to the raids for alleged infringement by Teco of patents covering MP3 and DVD technology owned by Philips.
Teco has said that it will claim indemnification from Sisvel and Philips for the damage caused by accusations of patent infringement.
To prove their innocence Teco has requested a notary appointed by the prosecutor to identify that Teco’s product did not violate any patents the Company’s Chairman CK Liu has said.
The Company claims that police, who were looking for MP3 and DVD patent violations, were so dumb that they removed TVs that had no MP3 playing capability or DVD player functionality and that their actions were not only unfounded but damaging to Teco.
Since the raid IFA has apologised about the incident however they have still has not returned Teco’s products. Philips has also said that they deeply regret what happened to Teco. Although Philips did not participate in German police’s action, it respects its means of implementation.
