A U.S. court based in Austin, TX ruled in February that Nano-Proprietary could terminate a license agreement that it had for seven years with Canon. Canon had planned on sharing the technology with Toshiba Corp., which was its partner in a flat-panel display joint venture to offer superior SED HDTVs in the U.S. (and possibly the world) market. The court did not address Nano-Proprietary's fraud claims against Canon in the ruling, which will be handled separately so that it can assess the size of damages due to the Nano-Proprietary in April. Obviously, the court would like to see Canon and Nano-Proprietary settle out-of-court, but, as it stands right now, neither side can seem agree on anything.

Reportedly, Nano-Proprietary has tried to meet with Canon to settle this issue, but, apparently, Canon is not responding. Canon believes that the court will eventually reverse itself, and that there will be no monetary damages and the fraud charges will be dismissed. However, it is understood that Canon might be re-thinking its commitment to SED. Canon's Chairman and Chief Executive Fujio Mitarai recently noted in a strategy briefing that he hopes to enter the flat TV market, but is interested in other types of flat displays including organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), which Sony Corp. also has under development. Supposedly, Mitarai as saying Canon is developing OLED technology with another maker and is also open to acquisitions.

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