Days after the California Superior Court granted Toshiba’s motion for a new
trial in its ongoing legal suit with rival Lexar Media, Toshiba said it will
appeal to a higher court to prove that it did not misuse NAND Flash trade
secrets from Lexar.
Last Friday, the court ordered a limited new trial regarding the $465
million in damages awarded
to Lexar on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to support the
damages awarded by the jury.
While that decision favored Toshiba, the court also denied Toshiba’s motion
for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) and also denied all other
aspects of Toshiba’s motion for a new trial.
Toshiba filed an appeal for this decision late Monday to the Superior Court
in California asking for a new trial on damages on the grounds that there
was insufficient evidence to support the judgment.
Both companies are appealing those portions of the court’s Dec. 2 order
denying JNOV, the practice in American courts where the judge in a civil
case may overrule the decision of a jury and judge in favor of the opposing party.
Overall, Toshiba said it was pleased with the court’s decision last Friday
to order a new trial for certain aspects of the case, but that isn’t enough.
“Toshiba is appealing other rulings in an effort to correct that what we
believe to be erroneous verdicts on the trade secret and breach of fiduciary
liability claims,” the company said in a statement.”
“We have strongly contested the allegations and denied wrongdoing throughout
the proceedings, and will continue to pursue all legal avenues to arrive at
a just outcome to this matter.”
In 2002, Lexar accused Toshiba of misappropriating trade secrets and
breaching fiduciary duty relating to NAND
increasingly popular form of digital memory used in certain MP3 players, such as
the iPod Nano.
Lexar and Toshiba both make Flash memory storage cards used in digital
devices, and both companies stand to win or lose quite a bit from this case,
which could take years to settle.
The case has roots to 1996, when Lexar alleged that Toshiba invested in and
secured a seat on the Lexar board only to take the technology and use it for
its own gain.
Lexar further claimed Toshiba began talks with Lexar rival SanDisk after
accessing Lexar technical information. Toshiba later resigned its seat on
the board and announced its relationship with SanDisk. Lexar sued Toshiba in
2002.
Toshiba tried to argue that it developed the technology in question, but
Lexar counsel discovered a paper trail of Toshiba’s own internal documents.
