Super-low-price-TV marketer Sceptre now has until Monday to answer allegations...

Super-low-price-TV marketer Sceptre now has until Monday to answer allegations in two separate complaints that it’s selling dozens of models of DTV sets without an ATSC or MPEG-2 license (CED July 7 p8), said a joint stipulation order in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles signed by lawyers for both sides extending the deadline (http://1.usa.gov/1qYBeyc). Sceptre’s legal team has just taken on a new lead attorney who needs more time to prepare for the case, said the order explaining the reason for the extension. The lawsuit alleging MPEG-2 patent infringement (case No. 2:2014-cv-04994) was filed June 26 by licensors General Electric, Mitsubishi, Philips, Sony and Thomson. The ATSC action (case No. 2:2014-cv-05150) was filed July 2 by license holders Panasonic, Philips and Zenith. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright, who’s presiding over the MPEG-2 case, declined a request that the case be transferred to U.S. District Judge George Wu, who’s hearing the ATSC case. It’s unclear from court documents which side made the request. The same legal teams are representing the two sides in both cases, documents show. None of the lawyers on either side commented. The transfer request had argued that leaving the cases separate “would entail substantial duplication of labor if heard by different judges,” because both complaints “arise from the same or closely related transactions, happenings or events,” and both “call for determination of the same or substantially related or similar questions of law and fact.” However, Wright ruled that “while both actions may invoke similar ultimate legal determinations, each action involves different patents,” his declination said (http://1.usa.gov/1tlYbhs). “There would [be] no substantial duplication of effort since each Judge would adjudicate the legal issues vis-a-vis different patents.” In addition to selling the TVs without an ATSC or MPEG-2 license, both complaints also allege that Sceptre has “induced” infringement of the same patents by retailers, distributors and other “downstream parties” that are selling or shipping the TVs, though neither action names or indemnifies those downstream parties. Walmart is one key retailer that maintains a big online presence for Sceptre TVs, we found Sunday when we visited Walmart’s e-commerce site (http://bit.ly/1tlUOqF). Our check of Walmart’s Sceptre-brand offerings showed 14 models of Sceptre TVs sized 19 to 50 inches were available for sale, all for well below $500. Its top-priced Sceptre model Sunday was a 50-inch 1080p LED-backlit set with 60 Hz frame rate that Walmart has listed for $468. Tagged as “Best Seller” was a 32-inch 720p LED-backlit set with 60 Hz frame rate and three HDMI inputs for $169. Walmart representatives did not comment on the complaints against Sceptre.