Nippon Steel Corp recently dropped its patent lawsuit against Toyota after the company said that disputes between Japanese organizations would hurt the country’s economic competitiveness.
The Asian steelmaker said November 2 that internal disputes amongst Japanese companies would hurt the country during a time of market uncertainty and a shift toward carbon neutrality, according to ABC News.
“Continuing the dispute with Toyota is not in the best interests of strengthening Japan’s industrial competitiveness,” said a Nippon Steel spokesperson, who added that Japan’s automobile and steel industries needed to work together even more amid intense global competition regarding decarbonization.
The intellectual property lawsuits, which were originally filed in 2021, demanded that Toyota and other organizations compensate Nippon $133 million after Toyota, Baosteel, Mitsui and Mitsui & Co. Steel allegedly infringed on the patents of Nippon’s non-oriented electrical sheets, one of the key products used to reduce emissions produced by cars, power plants and other electrical products.
Nippon does not currently plan on dropping its other patent lawsuit against Baosteel, which has reacted by saying that it will actively respond to the lawsuit in order to defend the company’s rights and interests.
Nippon Steel said that it will “firmly protect its intellectual property rights as the fruits of its technological development.”
