Sharp has decided not to appeal a recent court decision that removed the company's exclusing rights to the IGZO brand name.
Last month, the Intellectual Property High Court in Tokyo ruled that Sharp, which markets display panel technology for smartphones and other devices under the IGZO brand name, does not have exclusive rights to the term.
Sharp had sought the withdrawal of an earlier decision by the Japan Patent Office that nullified the company’s right to exclusive use of the acronym, which stands for indium gallium zinc oxide, a compound semiconductor.
But the High Court judge rejected Sharp’s claim, saying that the abbreviation IGZO is widely recognized to refer to the compound, which is used in the displays.
"Sharp scrutinized contents of the judgment deliberately and considered repeatedly appealing to the Supreme Court and so on.
Consequently, we decided to accept this judgment and not to
appeal to the Supreme Court, judging from difficulty of Sharp’s claims in the appeal being accepted, although there is considerable disagreement between judgment of the Intellectual Property High Court of Japan and Sharp’s claims," the Japanese company said in a statement.
Thus, Sharp’s trademark IGZO targeted by this suit, consisting of
the alphabet letters "I", "G", "Z" and "O" will no longer be
Sharp’s registered trademark.
Sharp said the matter has no negative impact on its business performance. The company is still able to use related logos and the acronym in its marketing.