Toshiba Corp. has announced that on May 14, 2009, Toshiba filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Imation Corp., several manufacturers and several distributors of recordable DVD media, as a means to prohibit infringement of Toshiba's DVD patents.

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 named in the complaint. The infringing recordable DVD media is sold in the USA under at least the Imation and Memorex brand names.

Toshiba licenses patents essential for meeting DVD format specifications. 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 of recordable DVD media without permission.

Toshiba said that the infringement of Toshiba's patents by these companies, has negatively affected Toshiba's business, and also caused damage to the legitimate and licensed DVD product manufacturing and distribution business as a whole. Through the filing of the lawsuit, Toshiba seeks to recover monetary damages, prevent future infringement, and/or secure agreements to respect Toshiba's intellectual property rights in the future.

Tags: Toshiba, DVD