Supplier of Polaroid TVs in Mexico Hit With HDMI Licensing Complaint

CE supplier Diamond USA bought counterfeit HDMI components from China, imported them into the U.S. and shipped them to its Tijuana factory in Mexico, where they were built into TVs sold through big-box retailers in Mexico under the Polaroid brand. So alleged an HDMI Licensing trademark-infringement complaint (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Diego, where Diamond USA has its headquarters. Named as defendants in the action besides Diamond USA were its CEO Augusto Arriaga and two subsidiaries that the complaint said he controls -- Diamond Mexico, which runs the Tijuana factory, and Diamond Milenio, which sells the TVs produced in Tijuana to mass-market retailers in Mexico. HDMI Licensing “has not authorized, consented to, or licensed Arriaga, Diamond USA, Diamond Mexico or Diamond Milenio to use HDMI technology in their products,” the complaint said. “In fact, none of the Digital TVs manufactured or sold by these entities have been submitted to HDMI Licensing for testing and approval.” Unlicensed uses of HDMI trademarks “jeopardize the economic interests, goodwill, and reputation of licensed manufacturers and their authentic, licensed, and compliant products,” the complaint said. Unlicensed and counterfeit HDMI products “jeopardize the systems into which they are placed because they may not conform with HDMI Licensing’s design specifications, production standards, or quality control, and thus lack reliability,” it said. “A consumer will not know whose products cause an incompatibility and may understandably, but wrongly, pin blame on licensed, fully-compliant products.” Representatives of Arriaga and the subsidiaries he controls didn’t comment Wednesday, nor did representatives of PLR IP Holdings, the Minnetonka, Minnesota, holding company that licenses the Polaroid brand globally.