Masterimage 3D is challenging the validity of four of RealD’s polarisation patents, claiming that the patents replicate pre-existing techniques. According to Masterimage 3D, RealD’s improper patent protection stalls competition in the 3D business and a correction would encourage innovation in 3D technology to the benefit of both moviegoers and the exhibition industry. Masterimage 3D filed five petitions for Inter Partes Review (IPR) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The company asserts that RealD’s patents claim to have invented techniques that have been well-known for decades and should never have been granted.
Masterimage 3D has already successfully challenged the validity of RealD’s utility model patents in China and Russia for lacking novelty and inventiveness and has itself been challenged by RealD in a patent infringement lawsuit filed against its new cinema system, the Horizon3D.
