Japan’s Nippon Steel Sues Toyota, Chinese Steelmaker Over Patent Breach

Tokyo, Oct 14 (UNI/Sputnik) Japan’s largest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, said on Thursday that it had filed lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corporation and Chinese steelmaker Baoshan Iron and Steel over their use of a steel product protected by a patent in their electric cars.
“Nippon Steel Corporation (‘Nippon Steel’) announces that today, it has filed lawsuits seeking compensatory damages before Tokyo District Court against Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. (‘Baosteel’), a Chinese steelmaker, and Toyota Motor Corporation (‘Toyota’), respectively, alleging their infringement of Nippon Steel’s patent relating to non-oriented electrical steel sheets,” the company said in a statement.
Nippon Steel also asked the Tokyo District Court for an injunction banning Toyota from manufacturing and selling electric vehicles with motors using the patented steel sheets and claimed 20 billion yen ($176 million) in damages from each company.
Commenting on the lawsuit, Toyota said there was no patent violation with the steel product’s manufacturer before signing the relevant contract, apparently referring to Baoshan Iron, the Kyodo news agency reported. The Japanese automaker expressed regret that the case was brought to court, saying it should be discussed between the manufacturers of the product.