Ricoh said Wednesday it has dropped damage suits against Taiwanese companies over patent infringement after reaching settlements. Ricoh filed the suits in May and September 2004 against major disk manufacturer CMC Magnetics, Lite-ON IT Corp and its four affiliates with a U.S. district court, claiming the defendants infringed on a total of six patents concerning CD-RW and DVD+RW technologies the Japanese company owns in the United States.

Ricoh had sued CMC Magnetics, Taiwan's top maker of optical compact discs, saying the company had violated three of its patents including one covering a technology related to the recording strategy of CD-RW and gives discs the ability to tell a machine which recording power to use.

The suit against Lite-On claimed the firm infringed three of its patents including one concerning a method for assuring recording quality through laser control.