3M Taking Sony, Others to Court over Battery Patent Infringement

3M is suing Sony, Lenovo, Matsushita and others over patent infringements related to rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. It also asked the U.S. Int'l Trade Commission to block imports of the rechargeable batteries and notebook PCs containing them. 3M says it has spent 10 years of R&D on cathode materials inside the batteries, which has allowed it to make them longer lasting and less prone to overheating. Sony reportedly uses the technology in batteries it manufactures for notebook PCs. CDW Corp., Batteries Com and Hitachi are also part of the suit. CDW and Total Micro Technologies make batteries for Lenovo's ThinkPad laptops. Batteries Com makes batteries for Dell, but Dell is not part of 3M's suit. Hitachi and Matsushita's Panasonic are cited for their use of rechargeable batteries in cordless power tools. Last year Sony lost over $400 million in a massive recall related to overheating and in some cases, exploding notebook PC batteries.

Sources: Bloomberg
Commentary: Jim Cramer's Take on 3M • 3M Gifts Shareholders with $7 Billion Share Buyback • Sony's Q2 Earnings Tank on Battery Recall Costs, PS3 Development
Stocks/ETFs to watch: 3M (MMM), Sony (SNE), Lenovo (LNVGY), Matsushita Electric Industrial (MC), Hitachi (HIT), CDW Corp (CDWC)

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