Thursday, April 29, 2004
Customs officials here have moved to prohibit imports of Samsung's plasma display panels following a request by Japanese rival Fujitsu Ltd.
Samsung Japan and Samsung SDI immediately responded last week by filing countersuits here, claiming it has not infringed Fujitsu's patents and that the import ban is unfounded. Samsung group also pressed Japan's patent office to rule on whether Fujitsu's PDP patents are invalid.
Tokyo customs officials said they accepted Fujitsu's request because it satisfied requirements of Japan's tariff law. Customs officials said they will conduct inspections of future PDP imports from South Korea.
Customs officials play no role in judging whether the PDP patents are valid, but inspection will be carried out based on Fujitsu's complaint. During inspections, investigators will hold hearings involving both partitas that usually take up to two months, according to a customs officer in charge of intellectual property issues.
Samsung SDI exported as many as 60,000 units a month; only 3 to 4 percent are shipped to Japan so the impact of the ban is not serious, said a spokeswoman of Samsung Japan.
The small volume of shipments from South Korea will have little impact on the Japanese PDP market, but companies such as Sony, Toshiba and Victor Company of Japan ¡ª which use Samsung PDPs for their PDP TVs ¡ª may have to seek for other suppliers if the ban continues. Most Japanese companies, however, have shifted PDP TV assembly closer to markets, and analysts said the ban will have little impact on the world PDP TV market.
Samsung SDI is expanding its PDP business. It shipped 168,000 panels in the first quarter of this year, a three-fold increase over last year.
By: DocMemory
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