Imation asks Court to reaffirm long-standing legal agreement between two companies.

Imation announced that it has filed a Declaratory Judgment Action in the Federal District Court in St. Paul, Minn., requesting that the court resolve an ongoing dispute with Philips Electronics N.V., U.S. Philips Corporation, and North American Philips Corporation. The action requests that the court reaffirm Imation's cross-licensing rights related to various optical products, including recordable and rewritable CD and DVD discs, based on a long-standing agreement between Imation and Philips.

Imation's cross-licensing agreement with Philips allows Imation to make, have made and sell various optical media products including CD and DVD discs. Based on Imation's cross-licensing rights under the existing agreement, Imation's action asks the court to stop Philips' recent attempts to interfere with Imation's ongoing business relationships with its customers and suppliers.

"Imation's technology leadership in optical storage goes back decades, and our customers worldwide rely on Imation to supply them with top-quality CDs and DVDs. There will be absolutely no disruption to this supply," said Frank Russomanno, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Imation. "We are disappointed that Philips has recently tried to interfere with Imation's optical partners despite the existing cross-license agreement and despite ongoing discussions with Philips. As a technology leader with a broad portfolio of intellectual property, and one of the innovators that helped develop a roadmap to the optical storage formats in use today, Imation vigorously supports the valid enforcement of licensing and IP rights. We simply want Philips to abide by their agreement with us."

The Imation complaint seeks a Declaratory Judgment recognizing: the existence of the Imation-Philips patent cross-license; that the cross-license applies to Imation's subsidiaries, including Global Data Media; and that the cross-license covers a variety of optical products irrespective of brand, including CD and DVD discs.