Toshiba Files Lawsuit Against Western Digital Corporation
2017年6月28日 - 2:45PM
ビジネスワイヤ(英語)
Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and Toshiba Memory Corporation
(“TMC”) today filed a petition with the Tokyo District Court
against Western Digital Corporation, a U.S. company, and its
subsidiary Western Digital Technologies, Inc. (collectively, “WD”)
(NASDAQ: WDC), seeking a provisional disposition order for an
injunction against acts of unfair competition, and also brought
suit for a permanent injunction, damages and payment of 120 billion
yen, alleging violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act,
among other things.
The lawsuit states, as detailed in Toshiba’s June 2, 2017 press
release, “Update on Status of Third-party Investment in the Memory
Business,” that WD has continually interfered with the bid process
related to the sale of TMC.
Citing joint venture agreements between Toshiba and SanDisk LLC
(including its affiliates, “SanDisk”), the lawsuit also says that
WD has exaggerated its consent right – in both public statements
and private communications to bidders and others involved in the
sale process – in order to interfere with the sale of TMC which
does not hold the ownership interests in joint venture companies
co-owned with SanDisk. The complaint goes on to state that
proceeding with the sales process for TMC does not violate any
consent rights held by WD; WD’s claims are false, designed only to
interfere with the sale process, and have damaged Toshiba and
TMC.
Toshiba and TMC have filed litigation in Japan because WD has
improperly obtained Toshiba and TMC’s trade secrets by transferring
employees of SanDisk to WD who have access to confidential
information of Toshiba and TMC through their participation in the
collaboration between SanDisk and Toshiba/TMC.
Toshiba considers that WD’s actions are damaging to both Toshiba
and TMC, violate the Unfair Competition Prevention Act (Article
2(1) (iv), (vii), (viii), (xv)), and are tortious acts under the
Civil Code (Article 709). Toshiba and TMC have filed the petition
for a provisional disposition order seeking an injunction to put an
end to WD’s damaging actions, and a suit seeking permanent
injunction and damages.
In addition to intentionally interfering with the TMC sale
process via its false claims, the suit says that Toshiba did not
object to WD access to information related to the joint venture and
development under the assumption that WD will be entering into a
contract in respect of information access, however WD had rejected
to such contract. Accordingly, to prevent further damage to TMC,
TMC believes it has no choice but to block WD’s ability to access
such information, starting today.
About Toshiba
Founded in Tokyo in 1875, Toshiba Corporation is a Fortune
Global 500 company that contributes to a better world and better
lives with innovative technologies in Energy, Infrastructure and
Storage. Guided by the philosophy of “Committed to People,
Committed to the Future,” Toshiba promotes operations through a
global network of 551 consolidated companies employing 188,000
people, with annual sales surpassing 5.6 trillion yen (US$50
billion; March 31, 2016).
Find out more about Toshiba at www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170627006615/en/
Press ContactToshiba CorporationKaori Hiraki,
+81-3-3457-2100Public Relations & Investor Relations Div.Media
Relations Groupmedia.relations@toshiba.co.jp