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To: capt rocky 1 who wrote (47530)	7/19/2000 2:29:24 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

O.T. "Release the the Hounds" Samsung Electronics Sued for Patent on TFT-LCD July 19, 2000 (TOKYO) -- Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and its Japanese subsidiary Samsung Japan Corp. at the Tokyo District Court on July 7. According to the court petition, Samsung Electronics allegedly has infringed on the manufacturing patent for a TFT-LCD panel which SEL owns. To be specific, the suit targets the color TFT-LCD monitor "SyncMaster170MP" which Samsung Electronics manufactures. The suit asks for a temporary court injunction against import, sale and advertising of the product, including sale and advertising via the Internet. The patent which SEL claims is being violated is deemed to be included in semiconductor equipment (patent number 3052131), which relates to handling of oxygen additive and carbon additive at the time of manufacture of the TFT-LCD panel. With regard to this patent, "most LCD panel manufacturers already paid a license fee," according to Shumpei Yamazaki, president of SEL. In this suit, SEL demands Samsung Electronics refrain from advertising and sales activity directed toward Japanese customers with the use of an overseas Web server. According to SEL, Samsung Electronics is only advertising and promoting the color LCD panel over the Internet, but is not conducting sales of the product. However, SEL claims that if Samsung Japan is prohibited to import and to sell this color LCD panel over the Internet, it is highly probable that the company would start selling over the Internet using a Web server outside of Japan. Basically, the patent right applies only in the country in which the patent has been granted, but with the rapid spread of the Internet in the past several years, the problem of infringement of patent rights across national boundaries has become a big issue. In this case, therefore, the court will be required to show its judgment on sale and advertising activity with the use of the Internet. In the past SEL has filed five suits regarding Samsung Electronics' TFT-LCD products, and this will be the sixth case. Of these cases, there were temporary injunctions to stop sales in two cases. SEL explains, "Even though Samsung Electronics has lost some of the cases, it puts new products in the market with a slight change in model numbers and designs. On top of it, it has been advertising the products in question on a full scale in newspapers and magazines. Such an activity cannot be tolerated," said Yamazaki. (Nikkei Electronics)

To: capt rocky 1 who wrote (47530)	7/19/2000 2:36:32 PM
From: jetcityrandy	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 93625

Is it illegal to voice/write opinions about brokerage firms and their analysts statements? I don't know, nor have I probably read the alleged statements in question, but it seems to me that the brokerage (SSB?) is being overly sensitive, and probably doesn't have much to stand on. I assume the brokerage is merely trying to "shut them up". Their lawsuit will backfire, if that is the case. IMO Heck, if you can't call a lawyer a crook, a politician a liar, or a brokerage/analyst a pump and dumper, there won't be much written in newspapers, nor mentioned on television. Now I know I have done it, someone is going to sue me for voicing my feeble thoughts. JMHO <g>