NEWS / VIA erneut in Patentstreitigkeiten verwickelt

Erst vor knapp zwei Monaten hat VIA seinen letzten Rechtsstreit wegen Patentstreitigkeiten, damals mit Intel, beendet (News). Nun tauchen bereits wieder neue Probleme für VIA auf. Dieses Mal verklagt man jedoch ein anderes Unternehmen: MedieTek, welches angeblich unerlaubt von Patent Nr. 6,459,665 gebraucht macht. Dabei handelt es sich um Optical Storage Controller, wie sie in CD-RW Laufwerken eingesetzt werden. Folgend die offizielle Pressemeldung (Englisch)...

"Taipei, Taiwan, 3 June 2003 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that it has filed suit against MediaTek Inc. (TSE2454) for patent infringement by its optical storage controllers.

The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco Division), alleges that MediaTek´s DVD-ROM, CD-RW and CD-RW/DVD Combi controller products infringe VIA´s U.S. Patent Number 6,459,665. This patent relates to an apparatus and operating method that increase the bandwidth of high-speed optical storage devices.

VIA will seek a preliminary injunction on the sale, display and import of these products into the U.S. VIA may also ask for the destruction of inventory held in the U.S., as well as an unspecified level of compensation.

"VIA places considerable importance on research and development investment across our broad product and technology portfolio, and we are rightfully proud of our achievements in bringing leading-edge solutions to market," said Richard Brown, Associate Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "This lawsuit will be aimed at stopping MediaTek´s infringement of VIA´s patent by these products and protecting our intellectual property rights..."