Since it was introduced, Philips' Veeza licensing scheme
hasn't been well received by Taiwan's CD-R media manufacturers. Philips has had a hard time enforcing it in India and China, which has
made it hard for manufacturers in Taiwan to compete. In response, CMC Magnetics, Ritek, Prodisc and Daxon have filed a lawsuit against
Philips, claiming that Veeza's licensing is unreasonable.
CMC Magnetics, Ritek, Prodisc Technology and Daxon Technology,
four major Taiwan-based producers of blank CD-R discs, are poised to jointly file legal proceedings in Taiwan to accuse Royal Philips
Electronics of imposing its unreasonable and discriminating Veeza licensing program upon them, according to a press release issued on
September 3 by the Taiwan Information Storage Association (TISA) on behalf of the four companies.
The four companies' key
argument in the lawsuit is that Veeza's high royalty charge rates have severely limited the companies' ability to operate in the market
for blank CD-R discs and that the licensing system discriminates against them because Philips has been unable to subject India-based
maker Moser Baer India (MBI) and fellow makers in China to Veeza, TISA secretary general Tzuang-ren Jeng pointed out.
According to DigiTimes, the four companies are asking Philips to return paid royalty fees in excess of reasonable
amounts and compensate them for lost business due to the discrimination of Veeza licensing. If you'd like to read more, the entire
article can be found here.
