Far from being the first time Time Warner Cable has upset its subscriber base, the Los Angeles city attorney's office is pulling a Dee Snider and refusing to take the carrier's lackluster service anymore. In a 25-page lawsuit, the city is alleging that the operator "caused major havoc and distress" two years ago when it "failed to live up to its part of the franchise cable agreement requiring that a company answer subscribers' calls within 30 seconds and begin repairs of service interruptions within 24 hours of notification in 90% of its calls for service." The suit claims that no more than 60% of customer calls were answered in time, and cable / internet service was said to be "so intermittent and inferior in quality that it was not much better than no service at all." Not surprisingly, TWC representatives chose not to comment on the whole ordeal, but the outfit could face civil penalties of tens of millions of crisp US dollars in the case. Should've picked up the phone, TWC -- it would've been easier than picking up this tab. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Image courtesy of Web 2 Concepts, thanks Scott]

Apparently, slapping your rival with one lawsuit per year just isn't enough for Sharp, who is tossing yet another case Samsung's way over -- surprise, surprise -- LCD patent infringement. This complaint, which was filed in the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea, claims that Samsung has infringed on three patents relating to brightness, response times and viewing angles of LCD panels. As expected, Samsung spokesman James Chung noted that the firm would be "responding actively to the lawsuit," and Sharp is asking the court to "award it compensatory damages and prohibit the production and sale in South Korea of the products concerned." C'mon guys, can't we just all get along?

[Via EETimes]

As if the cutthroat price wars in the LCD space weren't demanding enough, Samsung is now being forced to attend to a lawsuit that Sharp just filed over LCD patent infringement. Reportedly, Sharp is seeking "compensation as well as the prohibition of sales of products that it alleges infringe five of its LCD patents, including one that relates to technology used to enhance display quality." The products in question include Samsung televisions and monitors as well as mobile handsets that feature Samsung's LCD modules. Unsurprisingly, Samsung refused to comment on pending litigation, but a Sharp spokeswoman went so far as to say that it had "been in talks with Samsung, but it appeared difficult to solve the matter through negotiations," which apparently led to a lawsuit being filed. So much for talking things out, eh?

There's not too many technologies that eventually surfaced after hitting as many snags as these long-awaited SED TVs, but it looks like the final hurdle may finally be overcome. Canon has just announced that it will buy out Toshiba's stake in the pair's joint venture in order to get that pesky Nano-Proprietary patent lawsuit off their collective backs. The lawsuit claimed that its original agreement to license technology to Canon did not extend to Toshiba, thus presenting quite the quandary when Toshiba kept trying to get its SED displays out to showroom floors. SED TV production, however, is still up in the air, as Canon said that prior plans to erect a $1.49 billion manufacturing facility in Japan is now "under review," and an analyst even mentioned that the company might end up "reconsidering growth drivers to replace SED." Nevertheless, Canon is still clinging to the idea of popping out SEDs for now, although it was mentioned that it would be "on a smaller scale," which isn't apt to give these elusive sets any kind of price advantage whenever it lands. Interestingly, Toshiba still stated that if things went smoothly, it would buy some of the manufactured SED displays directly from Canon and throw its own logo on it, theoretically bypassing the lawsuit and simultaneously snubbing Nano-Proprietary. But hey, we've got no qualms with a little joint venture competition, and considering how every other HDTV price is falling through the floor, we'll bet they need it.

[Thanks, Greg]