The DVD6C Licensing Group (DVD6C) today announced that their authorized licensor, Toshiba, filed a demand for arbitration to collect royalties due from China-based ChangZhou XingQiu Electric Co., Ltd. under the DVD6C patent license. Toshiba is also continuing to pursue arbitration proceedings against Axiom Technologies Manufacturing Pte Ltd. (Axiom) (Singapore), Coby Electronics Co., Ltd. (Coby) (China), GDD Manufacturing S.r.l. (GDD) (Italy), Premium Disc Corporation (Premium Disc) (Canada), and Tonic Digital Products Limited (Tonic) (Hong Kong) to collect royalties due under their DVD6C patent licenses.

These arbitrations are part of a global initiative by the DVD6C Licensing Group to collect unpaid royalties, including those that are unreported and underreported.

The latest arbitration brings the total number of arbitrations filed by Toshiba as part of this initiative to eleven.

The DVD patent joint licensing program offers a simple process for obtaining licenses for patents related to optical storage products and held by Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba, JVC and Warner Bros. The patents are required to be obtained in order by any party that makes, uses, imports or sells products that conform to the DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD Video Recording Standard Specifications. In addition to the foregoing, the new DVD Patent Joint License also extends to +R/+RW Discs that conform to the +R/+RW Standard Specifications.

Philips, Pioneer, Sony and LG are also offering a seperate DVD license related to optical storage products.