Could the battle between Gigastorage and Philips finally be over? According to DigiTimes, Gigastorage recently terminated the compulsory license granted by the Taiwanese government, giving them the right to use Philips' CD-R disc patents. The company will instead shift production to Thailand where the license is meaningless.
Gigastorage, a second-tier maker of optical discs in Taiwan, on April 23 applied at the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to terminate its compulsory license to use CD-R disc patents belonging to Royal Philips Electronics, bringing to an end the long-time dispute between the two companies, according to industry sources.
Gigastorage has decided to shift its production of CD-R discs to Thailand and the TIPO-granted compulsory license will thus become meaningless, the company pointed out.
While the move to Thailand will mean lower labor costs and relaxed export laws, Gigastorage will probably still be under pressure from Philips to license the necessary patents. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes.
