2004
May 18, 2004
Minebea Co., Ltd.
Minebea Withdraws the First Lawsuit against Nidec
- (1) On March 29, 2004, Minebea Co., Ltd. ("Minebea") filed a lawsuit against Nidec Corporation ("Nidec") at Tokyo District Court in connection with a motor patent. This was to seek:
a) action for declaration of "non-existence of cause of injunction" based upon the Nidec's patent (Patent No. 3134304) against Minebea's operation of manufacturing and distributing the motors; and
b) action for declaration that the cost of this lawsuit should be borne by Nidec. - (2) On April 5, 2004, Minebea filed additional lawsuit against Nidec at Tokyo District Court for an injunction based upon the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, prohibiting Nidec from notifying and/or disseminating Minebea's customers that sale of Minebea-made FDB spindle motors infringes Patent No. 3134304. This aimed to prevent Nidec from hindering Minebea's sales operations by circulating a false rumor among Minebea's customers that sale of Minebea-made motors infringes the Nidec's patent.
- (3) Today, Minebea has withdrawn, in accordance with professional advice by our litigation counsel, only the first lawsuit for a declaratory judgment of "non-existence of cause of injunction by patent infringement" as described in (1) a) above.
We, Minebea, have made this decision because the withdrawal of the first lawsuit does not annul or affect the second lawsuit described in (2) above and we therefore consider a) we will be able to obtain the court's judgment that the products in question do not infringe the Nidec patent; b) concerns that our customers being pressingly and unduly caused detriment to their operations by injunctions have disappeared for the time being, owing largely to the Nidec's withdrawal of the suit against one of our customers; and c) the trial for the lawsuit described in (2) can be accelerated.
We have therefore filed a petition today to Tokyo District Court for withdrawal of the lawsuit filed on March 29, 2004. We will request that the trial be accelerated for the lawsuit for an injunction based on the Unfair Competition Prevention Law.
For inquiries, please contact:
Minebea Co., Ltd.
Masaki Ishikawa
Corporate Communications/Investor Relations Office, Corporate Planning Department
ARCO Tower, 19th Floor,
1-8-1, Shimo-Meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8662
Tel : 81-3-5434-8637/ Fax: 81-3-5434-8607
E-mail:mishikaw@minebea.co.jp
URL:http://www.minebea.co.jp/
Information in the press releases is current on the date of the announcement.
Product information, contact and other context are subject to change without prior notice.
Product information, contact and other context are subject to change without prior notice.
