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Toshiba Wins New Trial on Flash-Memory Dispute With Lexar

Posted on: Monday, 5 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Dec. 5--TOKYO -- Toshiba Corp. said Monday a U.S. court has granted it and its American unit a new trial in their dispute with their former U.S. ally, Lexar Media Inc., over flash-memory technologies Toshiba and Lexar jointly developed.

In a decision on Dec. 2, the Superior Court of the State of California ordered a new trial, nullifying a jury's decision earlier this year that ordered Toshiba and Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. to pay a total of $465 million in damages to Lexar, a digital equipment maker.

Although the court ordered the amount of the damages to be reviewed, it did not overturn the jury's finding that Toshiba shared Lexar's trade secrets with SanDisk Corp., a Lexar rival, in breach of fiduciary duty.

Toshiba said it is pleased that the court has granted a new trial, but is disappointed that it has rejected the company's claim that the finding is erroneous, and plans to appeal against it.

Toshiba teamed up with Lexar, based in Fremont, California, in developing NAND flash memory technology in 1997. But the Japanese company later joined hands with SanDisk and then competed against Lexar.

Lexar sued Toshiba in 2002 seeking $1 billion in damages.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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