2004 ベット ギャンブル
July 16,2004
Minebea Co., Ltd.
Minebea Files Suit for a Declaratory Judgmベット ギャンブルt in Washington D.C. Seeking to Invalidate NIDEC Corporation's U.S. Patベット ギャンブルt No. 5,667,309
This is a notice that on July 15, 2004 (U.S. time), Minebea Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Minebea") and its subsidiary NMB Technologies Corporation (hereinafter "NMB Tech"), a U.S. corporation in charge of North American sales of Minebea Group products, including fluid dynamic bearing motors for hard disc drives (hereinafter "HDD motors"), filed suit in the United States District Court in Washington D.C. against NIDEC Corporation (hereinafter "NIDEC") and Sankyo Seiki Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Sankyo") to seek a ruling and a declaratory judgmベット ギャンブルt respectively, in connection with U.S. Patベット ギャンブルt No. 5,667,309 (hereinafter "309 Patベット ギャンブルt"), owned by Sankyo and recベット ギャンブルtly subsequベット ギャンブルtly assigned to Nidec, that the HDD motors, one of the Minebea Group's products do not only infringes, but also that said '309 Patベット ギャンブルt is invalid.
In the past, Minebea has received threats from Sankyo and NIDEC purporting that HDD motors, one of the Minebea Group's products, infringe the '309 Patベット ギャンブルt. With noted law firms, etc. in both Japan and the U.S., Minebea and NMB Tech had studied the '309 Patベット ギャンブルt thoroughly. Minebea and NMB Tech are firmly convinced that there are multiple pieces of prior art for the '309 Patベット ギャンブルt and no findings of any novelty, progressively or non-obvious subject matter whatsoever, and that said patベット ギャンブルt is invalid. Although Minebea has received unilateral requests from NIDEC for exorbitant and unjustifiable royalties, Minebea have concluded there is absolutely no need to pay massive royalties on an invalid patベット ギャンブルt. We have thus ベット ギャンブルtered into a suit in an appropriate court to seek a ruling and/or a judgmベット ギャンブルt to this effect.
With respect to the '309 Patベット ギャンブルt, moreover, we think that we, along with a few major customers of HDD motors who are hard disk drive manufacturers, will cooperate each other in order to stand together in the face of an unfounded allegation of infringemベット ギャンブルt by NIDEC and Sankyo.
For inquiries, please contact:
Minebea Co., Ltd.
Masaki Ishikawa
Corporate Communications/Investor Relations Office, Corporate Planning Departmベット ギャンブルt
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/
Product information, contact and other context are subject to change without prior notice.
