Funai Says It’s Aware of Freescale Trade Complaint on Patents

Funai Electric Co., a Japanese maker of audiovisual equipment, said it knew Freescale Semiconductor Inc. filed a complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission on June 8 alleging patent infringement and seeking to block imports of certain chips. 　　“We also learned on July 8 that USITC started investigations in that case,” Naoyuki Takanaka, a spokesman at Osaka-based Funai, said by telephone today. Takanaka said the products in dispute include Funai televisions that use semiconductors and declined to give further details. 　　The U.S. trade agency agreed to review the complaint by Freescale against Funai Electric Co., Funai Corp., Mediatek and Zoran Corp., it said on its website yesterday. This is Funai’s second trade dispute with Freescale, Takanaka said. 　　Freescale filed a complaint on March 1 last year claiming that Panasonic Corp., Funai and JVC Kenwood Holdings Inc., as well as retailers such as Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., are violating Freescale’s patent rights.