The Dolcera Blog

LG.Philips LCD today announced that it has entered into a settlement agreement with Taiwan-based Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) to resolve their long standing disputes involving LG.Philips LCD’s patented technology.

The agreement, executed by LG.Philips LCD and CPT, calls for dismissal of two pending patent lawsuits between the companies and includes an agreement allowing the companies to use each other’s patented technology. As part of the settlement, CPT will also pay an undisclosed amount in compensation to LG.Philips LCD.

In 2002 and 2005, LG.Philips LCD filed two separate lawsuits in the US District Courts of the Central District of California and of the District of Delaware, respectively, alleging that CPT infringed LG.Philips LCD’s patents on TFT LCD technology. In July 2006, the jury in the Delaware case awarded LG.Philips LCD US$52.4 million. Later, in November of the same year, the jury in the California lawsuit awarded LG.Philips LCD US$53.5 million.

Separately, in December 2006, LG.Philips LCD announced that it would file additional patent lawsuits against two of its other competitors, AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). These suits are currently pending trial in the US District Court in Delaware.

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Excellent post from Andrew McAfee. Key points:

One of modern IT’s most underappreciated roles is as an enforcer of process discipline. Today’s enterprise systems make sure that complex, multi-step processes –  ones that involve employees, customers, suppliers, and other groups—are executed the same way time after time, location after location, with few or no exceptions.

Today, the parts of a business process that are executed with the assistance of IT are the easiest ones to control, monitor, and enforce. They’re also the easiest ones to reengineer with confidence…