Philips has reportedly filed a complaint with the European Union against the
Taiwanese government. According to DigiTimes, the complaint was due to Taiwan granting compulsory licensing of Philips' CD-R patents to
local disc manufacturers like GigaStorage.
Royal Philips Electronics Taiwan confirmed that it has filed a complaint with the
European Union against the Taiwan government in response to Taiwan's granting compulsory licensing of Philips' CD-R patents to local
firms, which is in violation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) agreement.
The case is a result of a July 2004 ruling by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), under the Ministry of Economic
Affairs (MOEA), that called for the compulsory licensing of five Philip's CD-R disc patents to Gigastorage, a second-tier optical disc
maker in Taiwan. TIPO based its decision on the fact that Philips had refused to renegotiate the CD-R fixed royalty charge rate of
US$0.035 per disc, despite the fact that OEM prices had fallen from US$5 in 1997 to US$0.19 in the first half of 2003.
TIPO
claimed that under Taiwan patent law, it had to balance the considerations of intellectual property rights with the promotion of domestic
Taiwan industrial development, with the perceived unreasonable royalties charges tipping the case in GigaStorage's
favor.
It's always amazing to see how far Philips will go to get their licensing fees. Gigastorage probably won't be
affected by this anyway, as they no longer export their discs to the US and the European markets, where Philips' patents apply. If
you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes.
