I don't know about you, but whenever I hear something even remotely connected to a “patent infringement suit,” the first thing that comes to mind is money, loads and loads of money the defendant will probably have to pay either as a settlement or following a final court decision, if it's found guilty, of course. So, it remains to be seen how much money Toshiba is going to obtain in the immediate future, given the fact that the Japanese company has just slapped a couple of important names on the optical discs' market with a suit related to the infringement of some of its DVD patents.

Thus, Toshiba has filed the respective lawsuit within the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, the defendants being, besides Imation, several manufacturers and distributors of recordable DVD media, namely Moser Baer India Limited (India), CMC Magnetics Corporation (Taiwan), Ritek Corporation (Taiwan), Glyphics Media, Inc. (U.S.A.), Hotan Corporation (U.S.A.), Khypermedia Corporation (U.S.A.) and Advanced Media, Inc. (U.S.A.).

According to the company's statement, Toshiba’s complaint seeks damages for past infringement and requests that the court enjoin the sale, manufacture, and importation into the United States of recordable DVD media by the defendant companies. The infringing recordable DVD media (which includes DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL, and DVD-RAM formats) is sold in the United States under at least the Imation and Memorex brand names.

The Japanese company claims that Imation and the other defendant companies named in the complaint do not have license agreements with Toshiba or the DVD6C Licensing Group covering recordable DVD media, and have engaged in the importation and sale in the United States of recordable DVD media without permission.

As things usually go with this kind of lawsuits, Toshiba seeks monetary damages, as well as an injunction to prohibit production, import, sales or other disposal or use of the named products in the United States. Of course, it's up to the court to decide whether these claims are legitimate or not, but if the verdict is positive, a lot of money will most likely change hands (or bank accounts) fast.


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