Toshiba sues Hynix Semiconductor for patent infringement

November 9, 2004 – Toshiba Corp. has filed patent infringement lawsuits against South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor Inc. both in Japan and the US, claiming that it violated Toshiba’s flash memory patents, according to several news agencies.

In a suit filed with the Tokyo District Court, Toshiba said the South Korean firm’s Japanese subsidiary, Hynix Semiconductor Japan Inc., infringed on Toshiba’s three NAND flash memory patents. The suit seeks damages against the alleged infringement and an injunction against sale of infringing products.

In the US, Toshiba has lodged a lawsuit with a federal district court in Texas against Hynix Semiconductor and its US subsidiaries, alleging that the firms violated Toshiba’s three DRAM chip patents and four NAND flash memory patents. The suit seeks compensatory damages and an injunction against the sale of infringing products.

Toshiba signed a cross-licensing agreement with Hynix on semiconductor products in August 1996, but the accord expired at the end of 2002 after the two firms failed to iron out differences in talks to extend it. Toshiba said it sought to secure “a reasonable fee for access to its patents” in the talks. “Failure to reach a satisfactory conclusion left Toshiba with no alternative other than to pursue legal recourse,” it said.

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