Tannas to License BAE's LCD Resizing Patents

Tannas Electronic Displays (TED) of Orange, Calif., said it has settled disputes with BAE Systems concerning patents and patent applications involving technology for resizing liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). As part of the settlement, BAE has licensed its patents involving resizing LCD glass to Tannas, which is authorized to sublicense them, including patents in Austria, Germany, Spain, the UK and the US, with additional patents pending in Canada, Israel and Taiwan. All other terms of the agreement are confidential. Tannas is now offering licenses for resizing LCDs for worldwide sales under the trademark TANNAS-SIZEDT LCD. The company said it plans to distribute primarily through it licensees, at present Symbolic Displays Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif., and SGB Enterprises Inc., of Valencia. The company said it will continue to conduct R&D and to produce and sell resized LCD glass from its Orange plant. Resizing is accomplished by trimming a larger display to make a smaller to fit almost any application in a way that retains the operating characteristics of the original display. Commercially manufactured LCDs can be resized at a fraction of the cost of makeing a custom LCD for a low-volume application, such as avionics or military vehicles, Tannas said, and resized LCDs can be made for more demanding applications. BAE qualified its resized LCDs for harsh military environments.