Toshiba Files ITC Complaint Against Hynix

Online staff -- Electronic News, 10/4/2005

Toshiba Corp. filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission on September 29 against Korea-based Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Hynix Semiconductor America Inc. alleging infringements of three NAND-type flash memory chip patents.

In a letter to ITC secretary Marilyn R. Abbott, Toshiba has requested that the commission conduct an investigation under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 regarding certain flash memory devices and components that it believes infringe its protected technology.

Hynix said it would fight the complaint, industry sources reported.

“We will cope with (the claim) aggressively, following legal procedures,” Hynix said in a public disclosure statement to the Korea Stock Exchange.

Toshiba is seeking an injunction against imports into the U.S. of the Hynix products involved.

The move was the latest in a series of patent-related legal actions by Japanese electronic makers, which are relying increasingly on technological expertise to survive global competition.

The complaint follows lawsuits filed by Toshiba against Hynix in U.S. and Japanese courts last November claiming that Hynix violated its patents protecting the circuitry design of its memory chips.

A Toshiba spokeswoman said the company filed the complaint after determining that an acceptable resolution was unlikely, reports said.

The companies originally inked a patent cross-licensing agreement in August 1996 that included semiconductors. The agreement expired in December 2002.