14 DAY TRIAL // While Rambus has been winning legal battles against Samsung and NVIDIA, other companies are filing complaints of their own against their rivals from other countries. One such company is Toshiba, which has filed not one but two different patent-infringement suits against Wistron, the world's third-biggest contract maker of laptops, based in Taiwan.
Toshiba filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and, also, a civil suit against the company in California. Toshiba claims that Wistron is violating two of its patents. One of them deals with saving files when the power is turned off and protecting saved content from unauthorized use. The other patent deals with an easier way to construct touchpads for electronic devices.
According to IDC, a researcher based in Framingham, Massachusetts, Toshiba is currently the fourth biggest seller of laptops in the U.S., after HP, Dell and Acer. The company said that it gave Wistron and its U.S. affiliates a “notice of their infringement in communications that took place,” in keeping with BusinessWeek.
The case is In the Matter of Notebook Computer Products, 2708, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington). In addition, the suit, filed in California, will likely be put on hold if the ITC agrees to investigate Toshiba's claims.
While Wistron was not immediately available for comment, the Wall Street Journal reports that it responded to the accusations on Wednesday, when it said that, “Wistron is now working with its U.S. counsels to vigorously contest Toshiba's claims.” The company also added that, “The proportion of the accused product to all of Wistron's products is small,” which means that the lawsuit isn't expected to have a very strong impact.
The ITC is a government agency that is meant to protect the United States market from unfair practices. If it decides to investigate Toshiba's patent-infringement claims, the process may extend to as long as 15 months.