Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. Counterclaims for LPL’s Infringement and Claims for 1 Billion.

Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd. (CPT) on June 3, 2004 officially made a statement that they would bring a lawsuit with US District Court in California against LG-Philips LCD’s (LPL) acts of conversion and anti-trust. Since the indemnification amount claimed by CPT exceeds 1 billion USD, and Taiwanese faceplate manufacturers encounter attack both from Japanese and Korean manufacturers, CPT for the first time fights back and is confident to win the suit. This suit has attracted the fullest attention from the industry.

 

In August of 2002, LPL lodged a complaint against CPT with US Federal District Court on the ground that the TFT faceplate manufactured by CPT infringed the six patents owned by LPL. CPT, however, found that 4 of the said 6 patents were invented by Digital Equipment Corp.’s (DEC) employees in accordance with the agreement for cooperation and joint development concluded by and between Digital Equipment Corp. and LG Electronics Ind. (LGE) in 1996.

 

The said 4 patents are owned by CPT after CPT has obtained from HP (DEC’s merger) the patent rights deriving from such cooperation and joint development program.

 

Therefore, CPT decides to request the court to give a ruling against the dispute over ownership of the relevant patents owned by LPL in recent days. As long as the ownership is confirmed, CPT will immediately counterclaim for LPL’s IPR conversion, and simultaneously will charge LPL and the principal holding company, LGE with their malicious fraud as a result of their dishonest submission of the real patent inventors’ names in the patent application procedure. (2004.06)

CYJ/CCS