Philips Electronics stated that it had won its civil suit filed with the US District Court in the Southern District of New York State against Gigastorage and Princo. According to the US federal court's judgment made on March 11, the Taiwanese CD-R manufacturers had violated six CD-R/RW patents.

This is the first victory for Philips after the Dutch giant lost an administrative lawsuit presided over by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) in March 2004. The US federal court, in accordance with its judgment, put a ban on imports of CD-R/RW discs to the US by the two Taiwanese companies, Philips indicated. Philips will ask the two accused to set aside royalty payments.

However, the final decision on the patent dispute will be decided by the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in June or July this year, Gigastorage pointed out. In the interim, the US federal court will monitor the two Taiwanese makers? imports to the US as they are required to pay a certain guarantee fee for every CD-R/RW discs sold there, according to Philips.

Gigastorage emphasized that, CAFC?s final judgment, no matter favorable to it or not, will not substantially influence its business operation because its exports to the US accounts for less than 10% of its total shipments.

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