The FCC seeks comments by April 27 and replies May 27 on a petiti...

it said in a public notice Wednesday. The Coalition United to Terminate Financial Abuses of the Television Transition (CUT FATT), whose only members are TV makers Vizio and Westinghouse Digital, filed the petition two months ago asking the commission to start a rulemaking to regulate the patent fees, and to impose fines on licensors judged to be non-compliant (CD Jan 5 p2). That the FCC has decided to seek comments on the petition is a sign CUT FATT’s allegations may have resonated with some at the commission. Compared with the DTV patent licensing process elsewhere in the world, licensors in the U.S. “operate in an unregulated ‘Wild West’ without supervision or accountability,” the petition said. In a written statement Wednesday, CUT FATT hailed the commission notice as a first step “to protect consumers against uncontrolled price-gouging by DTV patent holders.” Meanwhile, Funai wants the FCC to combine Vizio’s Friday request for temporary relief with the CUT FATT petition “under a single proceeding,” it told the commission in a motion filed Tuesday. In its request, Vizio said it will suffer “irreparable harm” without an FCC temporary order requiring Funai to license it for a DTV patent. But the Vizio request was merely a petition for rulemaking in disguise and should be treated that way, Funai said. Vizio styled it as a request for temporary relief in “a blatant attempt to trigger the substantially shortened pleading cycle” under FCC rules, Funai said. If the commission decides not to group the Vizio request with the CUT FATT petition, Funai wants the deadline extended to March 13 to respond to it, it said. Without the extension, its response would be due Monday.