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     This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,

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Following its patent litigation against MediaTek in the US, VIA Technologies has again brought its competitor to court over the same cause in Taiwan. In addition, VIA has added the name of Lite-On IT, a client of MediaTek, to the suit filed in the US, VIA said in a press release on Monday, according to DigiTimes

VIA filed two lawsuits in the Hsinchu District Court in Taiwan on June 23 and July 7, alleging that MediaTek’s DVD-ROM and combo controllers breached VIA’s Taiwan patent 163889. The patent relates to an apparatus and operating method that increases the bandwidth of high-speed optical storage devices, VIA said.

With the lawsuits in Taiwan, VIA is seeking “reasonable protection” under intellectual property laws, including prohibition of the sale, display or manufacturing of the products infringing its patent rights; the destruction of the products; and a certain amount of financial compensation, according to the company.

In addition, VIA has listed Lite-On IT, a major optical storage drive maker that orders chip sets from MediaTek, as a defendant in its lawsuit against MediaTek in the US District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco Division).

The US lawsuit, filed in early June, alleges that MediaTek infringed on VIA’s US patent 6,459,665 with its DVD-ROM, CD-RW and combo controller products. VIA is seeking a preliminary injunction on the sale, display and import of the products into the US, and may also ask for the destruction of inventory held in the US and an unspecified level of compensation, VIA said.

In response, MediaTek said it had found flaws in the granting of VIA’s patent in the US, since the patent was deficient in “novelty and improvement.” The lawsuits in Taiwan are believed to involve the same kind of patent, but MediaTek will comment on the cases only after it receives the formal legal complaint, according to a MediaTek press release.

Regarding Lite-On IT, MediaTek said it would “protect the legal rights of its clients with a responsible attitude.”

Lite-On IT also stressed that MediaTek had promised to fully protect its clients from any legal dispute derived from patent rights. The optical storage drive maker said it should not have been involved in the legal battles between VIA and MediaTek, but believed that MediaTek would handle the matter properly.