Japanese-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries sued General Electric Co on Thursday alleging that the US conglomerate participated in a scheme to monopolize the market for variable speed wind turbines in the US.
In a complaint filed in US District Court in Arkansas, the Japanese firm and its affiliate Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas charged that GE embarked on an unlawful anti-competitive scheme to push out Mitsubishi suppliers after Mitsubishi started to gain a foothold in the US market in 2006.
Mitsubishi said it would seek damages that would “probably be in excess of US$1 billion.”
The Japanese group alleged that GE sought to block its entry into the US market through a series of “baseless” patent infringement suits starting in 2008.
“GE has made baseless claims of patent infringement against Mitsubishi,” the lawsuit said. “GE has used the lawsuits as a marketing tool.”
The lawsuit states that “GE knew that by merely initiating patent litigation against Mitsubishi, it would intimidate potential wind turbine purchases and discourage them from purchasing Mitsubishi wind turbines while the litigation was pending.”
The suit contends that since GE’s litigation campaign began over two years ago, the Japanese firm has not sold a single variable speed turbine in the US.
Mitsubishi separately filed its own patent infringement suit against GE in a federal court in Florida. GE’s patent claim “is based on the same technology that GE disclosed in a public report in the early 1980s as part of a taxpayer funded research program,” a Mitsubishi statement said.
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