Don't you sometimes wish legal squabbles like this actually delivered on their promises? There's pretty much no way that Toshiba's patent claim with the US International Trade Commission will lead to a ban on Wistron imports -- the company builds laptops for Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and others, and will likely settle in cash long before any rulings against it -- but it's fun to imagine the mayhem that would result if such an eventuality were to materialize. A quick look at the rankings of global computer vendors shows that Toshiba is mostly trying to throw a banana skin in front of its direct competitors, claiming as it does that Wistron products infringe on its methodologies for touchpad production and file saving when the laptop loses power. The ITC, should it decide to investigate, will take up to 15 months on this matter, so no breath-holding is advised just yet, though if that settlement does eventuate it should be a pretty breathtaking number.

Toshiba seeks to prevent Wistron laptop imports to the US originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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