“Pioneer”ing Plasma v. Samsun(g)-who is the winner?

It appears Japanese electronics companies are in the bid to defend their territory from their Asian cousins are suing their cousins.

One such situation is where Pioneer Corporation, Japan has sued its Asian cousin Korean based electronic giant Samsung and its subsidiaries with U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in relation to patent infringement after apparently the talks between Pioneer and Samsung fell through.

Pioneer has claimed that Samsung has infringed its patents related to plasma display panel technology used primarily in television sets.

Pioneer holds a patent regarding an electrode configuration that improves plasma display quality, as well as a patent covering a manufacturing step that increases the brightness of the display.

According to Pioneer Samsung is violating both of those patents.

In the suit Pioneer is seeking the court to halt the sales of Samsung plasma displays in addition to compensation for past infringement.

According to Pioneer, Pioneer and Samsung had been negotiating in “good faith” to license the Plasma Display patent portfolio since April 2005. As the negotiations fell through, as per Pioneer litigation was necessary in order to protect the value of its intellectual property in the plasma display panels field.

Samsung obviously disagrees with Pioneer and plans to file a counter-suit against Pioneer.

Japanese electronic companies have in the past sued their Asian rival over both DRAM memory and LCD display technology. For instance in another patent infringement LG and Matsushita had locked horns over similar plasma patent. This was eventually settled in April 2005 by signing a cross-licensing agreement.

It appears this fight is for controlling the ever-increasing panel plasma market as plasma panels are the key component in plasma televisions. For instance as per a market research firm, the market for plasma televisions would nearly double to $28 billion by the year 2010.

Since the parties involved are giants, the only possible solution would be that of quid pro quo approach or in other word there would be licensing and cross licensing involved as none of the parties would want to loose their market share and would wish to have a hand in the plasma pie. By joining hand these giants would also prevent any third party to enter the fray.

As for the outcome of the battle between Pioneer and Samsung only time will tell how the matter is solved