Imation Corp. has filed a Declaratory Judgment Action in the Federal District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota., requesting that the court resolve an ongoing dispute with Philips Electronics.

The action requests that the court reaffirm Imation's cross-licensing rights related to various optical products, including recordable and rewritable CD and DVD discs, based on a long-standing agreement between Imation and Philips.

Imation's cross-licensing agreement with Philips allows Imation to manufacture, have others manufacture for Imation, and sell various optical media products including CD and DVD discs. Based on Imation's cross-licensing rights under the existing agreement, Imation's action asks the court to stop Philips' continued attempts to interfere with Imation's ongoing business relationships with its customers and suppliers.

Imation filed a similar action on 27 October 2006. Imation and Philips then entered into negotiations to resolve the dispute, and Imation withdrew its filing without prejudice while those discussions continued. However, as those negotiations were unsuccessful, Imation is re-filing its case.

"We are disappointed that Philips continues to attempt to interfere with Imation's optical partners despite the existing and long-standing cross-license agreement and despite our ongoing discussions with Philips,” said Frank Russomanno, President and CEO, Imation. “As a technology leader with a broad portfolio of intellectual property, and one of the innovators that helped develop a roadmap to the optical storage formats in use today by hundreds of millions of consumers, Imation vigorously supports the valid enforcement of licensing and IP rights. We simply want Philips to abide by their agreement with us."

Story filed 13.08.07