The CD-R patent dispute between Gigastorage and Philips is finally coming
to an end. According to DigiTimes, Gigastorage has reached a preliminary settlement with Philips. The two companies will sign a final
settlement once they can agree on which disc shipments Philips should be compensated for.
According to industry sources in
Taiwan, Gigastorage stopped paying royalty fees to Philips in April 2001 and then Philips filed a charge in the US. After a long process
of litigation Philips finally won the suit as judged by the US International Trade Commission in February 2007, the sources
pointed.
For the settlement, Philips demands that the compensation be based on all of Gigastorage's shipments of CD-R and CR-RW
discs and be paid in 10 years, but Gigastorage thinks only shipments to the US market are subject to the compensation and payment should
be in installment over 10 years, the sources pointed out. In addition, it is not certain whether Gigastorage will accept Veeza, Philips'
new CD-R licensing system, in the final settlement, the sources noted.
If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes.
