Litigation sees the demise of the best laid schemes of mice and men. SED (Surface-conduction Electronics-emitter Display) is supposed to be the next generation TV technology. It’s a flat panel display that promises to be sharper than Plasma and consume less energy than LCD. An alliance between Canon and Toshiba had promised it would be available to the public in Q4 2007.

Now this SED alliance is being sued by Nano-Proprietary, the company that licensed the SED technology to Canon in 1999. Nano-Proprietary takes exception to the involvement of Toshiba in its $5.6 million deal with Canon. The popular camera manufacturer, Canon partnered with Toshiba to take advantage of its display mass-production resources. A $1.5 Billion factory in Japan was going to build the new SED wonder - TVs.

Canon’s goal is to just make the new TV sets ASAP so they bought out Toshiba’s interest in the deal in an effort to settle with Nano-Proprietary. Toshiba is no longer in the picture. But that hasn’t stopped Nano-Proprietary’s litigation, they’ve decided to go ahead and sue anyway. Why not? Nano-Proprietary likely makes no more money off its deal with Canon if the sets are ever made. The patent holder makes its money in court while delaying the advance of technology, while you (the American public) foot the bill for the patent holder’s business model.