News
- 07.07.2010 - Chimei Innolux Sues Sony in U.S., China Over Patents
Chimei Innolux Corp., Taiwan’s largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, sued Sony Corp. in the U.S. and China for patent infringements.
Chimei Innolux seeks to halt the sale of Sony products, including Bravia televisions, Cybershot digital cameras and digital photo frames, in the U.S. and is also asking for compensatory damages, the Miaoli, Taiwan-based company said in an e-mail today, with specifying an amount. A suit was also filed against Sony in China, it said. Spokesman Eddie Chen confirmed the suits by phone today.
Chimei Innolux, formed in March by the merger of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., Innolux Display Corp. and TPO Displays Corp., supplies panels and partially assembled screens for use in TVs, computer monitors and electronics products. Sony earlier this year alleged Innolux and Hong Kong-based TPV Technology Ltd. violated its intellectual property rights and asked a U.S. trade agency to block imports of its products.
“We’re confirming the facts and can’t comment any further at this point,” said Tokyo-based Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari.
The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington said in April it would consider Sony’s claims that digital TVs and monitors made in China by Innolux and TPV are infringing 10 of the Japanese company’s patents.
The case announced by Chimei Innolux today is “not specifically related” to Sony’s earlier complaint against it, Chen said.
“CMI has invested significant resources to technical innovation, and focused on researching and developing advanced flat-panel display technologies and products,” Peterson Tien, Chimei Innolux’s General Counsel and Vice President said in the statement. “After our recent three-way merger, our intellectual properties portfolio has strengthened substantially and has become more diversified.”
Chimei Innolux filed its lawsuit in the United States District Court in the Western District of Arkansas and to the Beijing Intermediate People’s Court, according to today’s statement.
