Japanese electronics major Toshiba Corporation has filed lawsuit alleging DVD patent infringement against optical storage device maker Moser Baer India and seven other companies.

In its petition filed in the US district court for the western district of Wisconsin against Moser Baer and other manufacturers and distributors of recordable DVD media, Toshiba has sought an injunction on the use of its DVD patents by these eight companies, Toshiba said in a recent statement.

Toshiba Corporation has filed the lawsuit against: Moser Baer India Limited (India), Imation Corp (US), CMC Magnetics Corporation (Taiwan), Ritek Corporation (Taiwan), Glyphics Media Inc(US), Hotan Corporation (US), Khypermedia Corporation (US) and Advanced Media Inc (US).

The products include recordable DVD media of the formats DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL, and DVD-RAM, according to a Toshiba release.

Toshiba's petition has sought damages for past infringement and has pleaded for court injunction on the sale, manufacture, and importation of recordable DVD media by the defendant companies named in the complaint.

''The infringing recordable DVD media is sold in the US under at least the Imation and Memorex brand names,'' it said.

''Toshiba licenses patents essential for meeting DVD format specifications.  Imation and the other defendant companies named in the complaint do not have license agreements with Toshiba or the DVD6C Licensing Group covering recordable DVD media, and have engaged in the importation and sale of recordable DVD media without permission,'' the release said, adding, ''The infringement of Toshiba's patents by these companies, has negatively affected Toshiba's business, and also caused damage to the legitimate and licensed DVD product manufacturing and distribution business as a whole.''

In its petition, Toshiba has sought to recover monetary damages, prevent future infringement, and/or secure agreements to respect Toshiba's intellectual property rights in the future.

The DVD6C Licensing Group (DVD6C) is an industry body representing nine leading developers of DVD technology and formats that licenses essential DVD patents.

The Toshiba challenge comes in the backdrop of high content prices and the global meltdown that has impacted the entire entertainment value chain.
 
Moser Baer has released a series of prestigious films from the UTV production house, including Dev D, Fashion, A Wednesday and Mumbai Meri Jaan.
 
The company is leading industry-wide efforts to beat back film piracy, which has for long been seriously hurting the film industry

The launch of Super DVDs - a product with multiple films on one disc - has helped further expand volumes and give customers a legitimate and good quality product.

New Delhi-based Moser Baer is a leading global technology company and has become the world's second largest manufacturer of optical storage media like CDs and DVDs. The company also emerged as the first to market the next-generation of storage formats like blu-ray discs. Recently, the company has transformed itself from a single business into a multi-technology organisation, diversifying into exciting areas of solar energy, home entertainment and IT peripherals and consumer electronics.

Moser Baer has over 8,500 full-time employees and multiple manufacturing facilities in the suburbs of New Delhi.