According to optical drive
manufacturers, VIA Technologies' lawsuit against IC
company MediaTek is not expected to directly impact the optical storage drive
industry in the near future.
 Both
Quanta Storage and BenQ, which reportedly order various optical storage
chips from either or both of the IC design companies, said they would not
consider replacing their chip suppliers over the legal battle in the near
future. Shipments of current optical drive products will be unaffected
before the court rules on the case, the drive makers said.
The remarks came after a press release by
VIA on Tuesday, which stated that the company had sued MediaTek for
allegedly violating a US patent held by VIA with its DVD-ROM, CD-RW and
combo controller chips. Although VIA did not name DVD player products in
the statement, they could also be involved in the case as some of the
chips apply the same patent used for DVD-ROM chips, VIA told
DigiTimes.
In response, MediaTek said that it had not
received the formal legal complaint and would comment only after seeing
the documents. According to sources, MediaTek's PC-use optical storage
chips currently account for 55-60% of the company's total revenues, while
the remainder comes from the DVD player sector. In the first quarter of
2003, MediaTek generated about NT$8.60 billion in
revenues. |
Optical storage drive manufacturers have said that it will probably take considerable time before
the two sides can obtain a court ruling or reach a resolution. Therefore it is
unlikely that the lawsuit will have any influence.
Source: DigiTimes
