The federal appeals court that granted en banc review of a decision enforcing TiVo’s patents against Dish Network appears interested in bigger-picture questions about patent law rather than the details of the case, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said Tuesday on the company’s Q2 earnings call. “They clearly are looking at these broader policy questions,” Roger said. “And if you believe that our case is strong, when it comes to the facts and the patent, we think it only becomes a more compelling case when it comes to these policy issues.” The policy question at issue is how long it should take to enforce an injunction over a patent when the infringer claims to have made changes to its product that mean it no longer infringes the patents, Rogers said.

CE makers building 2D-to-3D conversion chips into their 3D TVs and studios converting legacy 2D program content to 3D have been understandably secretive about the techniques they're using or studying to reproduce simulated 3D from 2D video. But published patents reveal a wealth of more detailed information than manufacturers and studios are willing to share about the 2D-to-3D conversion techniques that are available.

SEATTLE -- U.S sales of 3D TV sales will hit 4 million sets this year, much higher than its late-2009 estimates of just more than 1 million sets, the company said Wednesday at the IMS TV 3.0 seminar at the Society for Information Display conference. The impending release of Blu-ray 3D movies and the debut of dedicated 3D channels like ESPN 3D is spurring Samsung to upgrade its forecast, said John Revie, senior vice president of product marketing for home entertainment.

SEATTLE -- Prime View International’s subsidiary E Ink will deliver its first color electrophoretic displays (EPDs) to OEM customers late this year, Prime View Executive Vice President T.H. Peng told us at the Society for Information Display conference. Based on that timing, Prime View thinks the first EPD-based color e-readers will reach store shelves by early 2011, Peng said. Peng spoke as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was telling shareholders at the company’s annual meeting Tuesday that a color-display Kindle e-reader was “still a ways out” (CED May 26 p3).

Nearly a year after the analog TV cutoff, some consumers who made the switch to DTV with a government-subsidized converter box have complained their set-top suddenly stopped working. Reviews for some boxes still being sold online vary, with some buyers claiming certain brands of boxes broke down within six months of installation.

Amazon remains upbeat about its Kindle business and is unfazed by the growing number of competing devices with LCD screens including the iPad, CEO Jeff Bezos told a shareholders meeting in Seattle Tuesday.

Sony named former Vaio PC executive Mike Abary to head its core CE operations as it lays the groundwork for launching Google TV-based products in the fall. Abary, most recently senior vice president of Sony’s IT Division, assumes a new post that will oversee the company’s sprawling TV, home AV and connected home products groups, the company said.

SEATTLE -- Long described as awaiting their debut just over the horizon, OLED TVs at long last will arrive in 30- to 40-inch screen sizes by 2013 as manufacturers scale up production and resolve product life expectancy and production issues, industry executives said at the Society for Information Display (SID) conference.

STANFORD, Calif. -- The actions that made Microsoft the target of antitrust authorities internationally didn’t compare with some of the practices of dominant technology players today, said General Counsel Brad Smith. “One can only imagine the volcanic uproar” if Microsoft had run an app store in which the company “alone would control” the software accepted for distribution and from which applications that competed with offerings by the company had been excluded, he said late Friday at an antitrust symposium hosted by Stanford Law School and the American Bar Association.

Trans World Entertainment completed its restructuring, having closed 133 unprofitable f.y.e., Suncoast Motion Picture Co. and Saturday Matinee stores to shrink the chain to 576 outlets, Chief Financial Officer John Sullivan told us.