Blu-ray's Victory Threatened by Li'l Old Lady Professor?

It's no secret that the high-definition optical disc war just ended, with Blu-ray the winner. But a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announcement made last Thursday may derail any ongoing celebrations.

Gertrude Neumark Rothschild, professor emeritus of engineering at Columbia University, filed a complaint on February 20th, asserting that the technology for not just Blu-ray players, but hand-held mobile devices, instrument panels, billboards, traffic lights, and unspecified data storage devices are based short-wavelength (e.g., blue, violet) LEDs and laser diodes that she has patents for.

I first heard about this over the weekend, but it wasn't until a friend prompted me that I realized this was no joke.

The list of companies under investigation is large, and full of well-known (and not-so-well-known) names:

• Avago Technologies of Singapore
• Bacol Optoelectonic Co. Ltd. of Taiwan
• Dominant Semiconductors Sdn. Bhd. of Malaysia
• Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., of Taiwan
• Exceed Perseverance Electronic Ind. Co., Ltd., of China
• Guangzhou Hongli Opto-Electronic Co., Ltd., of China
• Harvatek Internaional Inc. of Taiwan
• Hitachi, Ltd., of Japan
• Kingbright Electronic Co., Ltd., of Taiwan
• LG Electronics of Korea
• Lite-On Technology Corp. of Taiwan
• Lucky Light Electronics Co., Ltd., of China
• Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., of Japan
• Motorola, Inc., of Schaumburg, IL
• Nokia of Finland
• Opto Tech Corporation of Taiwan
• Pioneer Corporation of Japan
• Rohm Co., Ltd., of Japan
• Samsung Group of Korea
• Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., of Japan
• Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd., of Korea
• Sharp Corporation of Japan
• Shenzhen Unilight Electronic Co., Ltd., of China
• Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd., of Japan
• Sony Corporation of Japan
• Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB of Sweden
• Stanley Electric Co., Ltd., of Japan
• Toshiba Corporation of Japan
• Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., of Malvern, PA
• Yellow Stone Corporation of Taiwan

Here and here are the patents in question. Rothschild already has a settlement with Philips Lumileds under her belt, but you can assume that the U.S. isn't going to halt shipments of all those types of devices. A quick attempt at mediation between companies and the professor might be in order, however. Obviously more to come.