Fujitsu brought an action against Samsung in a district court here and in Los Angeles for infringing its Japanese and U.S. patents. Fujitsu is seeking a court order against future importation and sales of infringing PDP products and compensation for past infringement.

Samsung SDI reportedly moved first, suing in the same Los Angeles federal court in February in an effort to show that Fujitsu's PDP patents are invalid.

Masanobu Katoh, group president of Fujitsu's Intellectual Property Group, said, "Fujitsu has invested over 30 years and very significant resources in developing commercially viable PDP technology. We cannot permit others to exploit these valuable inventions without appropriate compensation."

Fujitsu claims that it has more than 800 patents around the world, most of which cover fundamental PDP technologies.

Japanese patent No. 2,845,183, which Fujitsu filed in Tokyo as an infringed patent, covers a structure for plasma gas discharge. Discharge excites phosphor that then emits light in plasma displays. Fujitsu claims it owns the patent on the structure, which extends the lifetime of the maechanism so it can be used in consumer products and generates higher brightness.

The basic structure is widely used in PDPs, Fujitsu alleges.

Fujitsu was the first manufacturer to launch volume PDP production in 1993. It claims basic patents on technology used for current PDP panels now in volume production. Fujitsu has been negotiating with PDP manufacturers about licensing its patents. It has so far reached agreements with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Pioneer Corp. and is negotiating with LG Philips. Talks with Samsung SDI broke down, prompting Fujitsu's lawsuit.

Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display Ltd., a joint venture company with Hitachi, Ltd. for PDP manufacturing, has long held an overwhelming share of the PDP market as well as production capacity. Samsung SDI and LG Electronics are catching up, however. According to DisplaySearch, Fujitsu accounted for 30.2 percent of total PDP shipments, or 758,000 units in 2002. Samsung SDI had just an 8.7 percent market share in 2002.

Last year, however, Fujitsu doubled its shipments but saw it market share drop to 23.9 percent while Samsung SDI sprang to the second position with 20-percent share as shipments doubled to 1,779,000 units.

PDPs are the principal component of plasma display television sets, one of the fastest growing segments of the flat-screen television market. Samsung SDI was a top supplier of panels for TVs during the last two quarters of 2003, according to DisplaySearch.

By: DocMemory
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