March 28, 2008
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. has filed a suit against Opnext Japan, Inc. in the Tokyo District Court of Japan, on the infringement of the basic patent related to the semiconductor laser for a signal light source(Note 1) used with optical fiber telecommunications. Furukawa Electric claimed the injunction of manufacture, sale and 300,000,000 yen as the part of the damages.
Infringed Patent
The patent on the semiconductor laser device for optical communication signals and modules that use the device has been infringed.
Background and facts
The semiconductor laser is an important component in high speed and large capacity optical telecommunication networks.
Furukawa Electric obtained in March 1999 a basic patent (Patent No. 2,898,643) in Japan related to a quantum well semiconductor laser device(Note 2) that makes a high performance semiconductor laser possible. The basic patent relates to the structure of the light-emitting region that emits the laser.
Opnext Japan, Inc. has been manufacturing and selling in Japan the semiconductor laser for the signal light source that uses basic patent of Furukawa Electric.
Furukawa Electric decided to file the suit in the Tokyo District Court of Japan on March 27, claiming injunction of the manufacture and sale of products that infringe the basic patent of Furukawa Electric and 300,000,000 yen as the part of the damages.
Explanation of Terms
(Note 1) Semiconductor laser for signal light source
The semiconductor laser module is used as the light source for optical telecommunication signals. In general, the modules of wavelength range between 1530 and 1560nm and an optical output of several mW to several dozen mW are used generally. Back to Main Content
(Note 2) Quantum well semiconductor laser device
It is one of the core components of the optical semiconductor laser. It improves the performance of the optical semiconductor laser by using the quantum-mechanical effects on the light-emitting region for emitting the laser.