Both Quanta Storage and BenQ, which reportedly order various optical storage chips from either or both of the IC design companies, said they would not consider replacing their chip suppliers over the legal battle in the near future. Shipments of current optical drive products will be unaffected before the court rules on the case, the drive makers said.

The remarks came after a press release by VIA on Tuesday, which stated that the company had sued MediaTek for allegedly violating a US patent held by VIA with its DVD-ROM, CD-RW and combo controller chips. Although VIA did not name DVD player products in the statement, they could also be involved in the case as some of the chips apply the same patent used for DVD-ROM chips, VIA told DigiTimes.

In response, MediaTek said that it had not received the formal legal complaint and would comment only after seeing the documents. According to sources, MediaTek's PC-use optical storage chips currently account for 55-60% of the company's total revenues, while the remainder comes from the DVD player sector. In the first quarter of 2003, MediaTek generated about NT$8.60 billion in revenues.