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LG countersues Hitachi over display patents |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Thursday, 21 June 2007 |
 South Korea's LG Electronics has sued Hitachi, saying Japan's top electronics
conglomerate violated seven of its plasma display-related patents, the latest in
a string of legal spats over flat-TV related technology.
LG filed the suit with a U.S. district court in Texas, seeking monetary compensation and a halt to sales of Hitachi displays, LG said in a statement on Monday. LG's counter suit names Hitachi America and Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display, a Hitachi unit 4.6 percent owned by electronics maker Fujitsu.
The action, comes two months after Hitachi sued LG Electronics in the United States over display patents, comes as both Hitachi and LG struggle to restructure their loss-making plasma display panel businesses after losing out in a price war with makers of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.
LG said in a statement
Japanese firms are filing more and more lawsuits as competition in the global display market has increased dramatically. We will proactively deal with the situation based on our patented and patent-applied-for technologies
LCD panels are gaining ground over Plasma panels because plasma panels use more electricity and is more prone to burn in. The major reason to pick plasma panels over LCD is that it is generally larger and cheaper. However, LCD makers have rolled out bigger and cheaper displays, causing plasma panel revenues to drop 28 percent from the prior year to $1.3 billion in January-March, according to DisplaySearch.
Fierce competition over flat TV technology also prompted Japan's Sharp to sue Taiwan's HannStar Display earlier this month, claiming the LCD maker had violated Sharp's LCD patents used in flat TVs.
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