Osaka-based MNC corporation Panasonic filed two lawsuits on Thursday against Broadcom Corp, which is in the business of producing chips in the United States of America. The lawsuits were filed in a US District court for the western district of Texas.
Allegations against Broadcom Corp
Panasonic Corporation alleges that Broadcom Corporation is producing various items such as microprocessors, integrated circuits and many components used in wireless networking which infringes rights of Panasonic Corporation in ten patents.
Tech company through the lawsuit is requesting the court for an unspecific amount of money as damages. Company is also asking for a court order which prohibits Broadcom Corp from acting in any manner in future which would endanger patent right of Panasonic.
The lawsuits also alleges that Broadcom Corporation and its office bearers wilfully violated patent terms and rights of Panasonic regarding production and design of various items used in semiconductor industry. Panasonic is using patent applications file by Broadcom corporation to substantiate their claims that opposing company was intentionally infringing patent rights of petitioner.
The lawsuits also said Broadcom infringed the patents wilfully, noting that Broadcom had cited some of them in its own patent applications.
Panasonic Corporation is represented by John Guaragna, Matthew Satchwell, Brian Erickson and Jake Zolotorev of DLA Piper. There is no information as of now regarding who would be representing Broadcom Corporation in the lawsuit.
So far, there has not been any comments or statement from either Panasonic or Broadcom corp regarding the lawsuit.
Earlier lawsuits related to Broadcom and Panasonic corp
This is not the first time Broadcom Corporation has taken part in a legal fight for patent rights.
Few years ago, Broadcom Corp filed a lawsuit in a US district court in Marshall city, Texas against famous carmaker Toyota Motor Corporation. Lawsuit said that Toyota and other four Japanese tech companies including Panasonic corporation violated patents rights of Broadcom corp on at least 6 patents issued between 2005 and 2014.
Other companies in lawsuit were Renesas, Denso Corp, and Pioneer Corp. (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 21-1260, No.21-1362 and No. 21-1511).
Nearly at same time, Broadcom Corp also filed a claim for patent rights against these same companies in International Trade Commission.
ITC rejected the claim of Broadcom corp, which led to company moving for an appeal in court.
In March 2022, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected the appeals filed by Broadcom Corp against ITC decision to reject their patent claim.
The lawsuits which were filed along with ITC claim were stopped when both parties withdrew their respective lawsuits.