Japanese consumer electronics company and fundamental DVD patent holder Toshiba filed a patent infringement suit yesterday against Imation Corp and related vendors for "reckless disregard of Toshiba's patent rights" in the creation of recordable DVDs.

Toshiba licenses its essential DVD patents both individually and jointly as a part of the DVD6C Licensing Group, which also includes Hitachi, Panasonic, JVC, Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, and Warner Bros.

The suit says Imation and Memorex recordable DVDs do not have license to use Toshiba's patent (#5,708,651) for "Optical Disk Having Reduced Track Pitch and Optical Disk Playback Apparatus Containing the Same," and seeks damages from the company and block the sale, manufacture or importation of these discs.

All formats produced by Imation: DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL, and DVD-RAM, are included in the suit.

A statement from the company yesterday said, "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. Through the filing of the lawsuit, Toshiba seeks to recover monetary damages, prevent future infringement, and/or secure agreements to respect Toshiba's intellectual property rights in the future."