Sharp and Hisense settle action?
February 27, 2018
By Chris Forrester
TV manufacturer Sharp has been involved in a legal spat with Chinese TV set giant Hisense since August 2017, and grumbling that the Chinese-made sets were “shoddily made” and had brought the Sharp-branded products sold in the US into disrepute.
According to a report in specialist publication Large Display Monitor, Sharp “took legal action to try and end the licensing agreement—due to expire in 2020—early”. Japanese press reports say that all claims filed by Sharp against Hisense were dropped last Thursday.
Sharp had sold Hisense the rights to its ‘Sharp’ brand in 2015 and to run for a period of 5 years. However, Sharp was acquired by Foxconn Technology in 2016. In its lawsuit Sharp alleged that its brand and trademark was at risk of being destroyed by the poorly manufactured products.
Sharp/Foxconn is known to want to expand its range of TV products to include 8K displays.
One report says that Hisense has agreed to immediately give up its rights to the Sharp brand.