Gemstar Subsidiary Files Suit Against Toshiba
Japanese StarSight Telecast Unit Alleges Patent Infringement
By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/17/2007 5:51:00 AM
Gemstar-TV Guide International is suing Toshiba for patent infringement of its interactive programming guides.
The action is being initiated by Gemstar subsidiary StarSight Telecast in the Tokyo District Court. StarSight alleged that Toshiba infringed one of its Japanese patents for techniques in providing IPGs and for controlling recordings from IPGs.
Gemstar has close to 200 issued and pending patents pertaining to IPGs in Japan. The patents support its G-GUIDE program-guide service, which is available in Japan on televisions, digital-video recorders, PCs, mobile phones and the Web. G-GUIDE is produced through a partnership with Interactive Program Guide, a joint venture with DENTSU and Tokyo News Services.
"We have endeavored to license Toshiba as a commercial partner for their sales of consumer-electronics devices in Japan that use IPGs covered by our patents,” Akitaka Nishimura, president of Gemstar Multimedia in Japan, said in a statement. “But to date, negotiations have shown no meaningful progress. While we have always worked cooperatively with all industry participants in the Japan market, we ultimately have a responsibility to our shareholders, employees, licensees and other stakeholders to protect the value of our intellectual property."
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