Tech Shout!

Toshiba has dragged an Italian company to court, accusing it of being involved in patent violations by manufacturing and selling DVDs without acquiring proper licenses.

According to Toshiba, Italian DVD disc duplicator ACME SpA is distributing the discs in Italy without consent. In a statement issued, Toshiba said that this has “damaged Toshiba’s DVD-related business, and also caused damages to the legitimate and licensed DVD product manufacturing and distribution business as a whole.”

Toshiba licenses patents that confirm format specifications approved by the DVD Forum, and is part of the nine-member DVD6C Licensing Group. Ironically ACME failed to attain permission for DVD distribution from Toshiba or DVD6C, notes the suit that has been filed in a Milan court.

The Tokyo-based electronics company has asked for monetary damages along with a promise from ACME to regard Toshiba’s intellectual property rights in the future.

Way back in April, Toshiba slapped lawsuits on 17 electronics companies over DVD-related patent infringement. In addition, in July it filed a DVD patent suit against German DVD maker EDD.