Aw, snap! Just months after Funai took the reins from Philips in North America, along comes a lawsuit for its lawyers to deal with. VIZIO, still feeling proud after its all-business Super Bowl ad, has thrown a potent antitrust and unfair competition lawsuit in Funai's direction. The outfit alleges that Funai, "acting alone and in concert with others, unlawfully restrained trade and monopolized the market for the licensing of technology used to interpret and retrieve information from a digital television broadcast signal, as well as the market for digital television sets and receivers." Specifically, VIZIO seems perturbed that Funai inappropriately acquired the rights to one single US patent, and ever since it has "unfairly discriminated against VIZIO in the licensing and enforcement" of said patent to the "detriment of trade and commerce." There's no mention of how many bills VIZIO thinks will fix the problem, but Funai better not try filling stacks of hundies with Washingtons in between.

[Image courtesy of TooMuchNick / WireImage]

European regulators have begun an inquiry into possible antitrust and anticompetitive practices by the Blu-ray Disc Association as it relates to agreements and restrictions on producing content for Blu-ray and its competing high-definition format, HD DVD. At the urging of some in the HD DVD camp, the European Commission has sent letters to many of the Hollywood studios asking them to produce any correspondence relating to their backing of the Blu-ray format. Of the major studios, Sony, Disney, Fox, Lions Gate, and MGM only release titles on Blu-ray, while only Universal is exclusive to HD DVD. Analysts say much is riding on the outcome of which format wins, with sales of content and players as a big incentive for either side. Is this inquiry just a case of sour grapes by HD DVD that sees itself as in trouble while Blu-ray has better agreements with studios? Or is the BDA not playing fair by using those vertical relationships to form a de facto monopoly? Those in the EU aim to find out.

[Thanks, LJKelley]

Mediacom Communications, the eighth-largest cable provider in the United States, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Sinclair Communications in Federal court, alleging that the broadcaster has attempted to force higher fees on cable and satellite providers by only allowing carriage if Mediacom pays fees to bundle stations in other markets. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., is one of the largest television broadcasters in the country. Sinclair owns, operates, or services 58 local television stations in 36 markets, reaching 22% of television households in the United States. Sinclair is well known among providers for refusing to allow providers to carry certain channels if they haven't paid up Sinclair's fees, while attempting to get them to pay fees for other markets as well. Now Mediacom is fighting back, filing in an Iowa Federal court that Sinclair has overstepped its legal bounds and used its monopoly powers to tie station carriage unfairly. Those with Sinclair in their markets will surely be rooting for Mediacom on this case, as we would hate to be watching Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS, CW or any of the other Sinclair-owned stations in standard-def -- if even at all -- just because of unfair business tactics.