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Toshiba was ordered by a California jury to pay $84 million in punitive damages to Lexar.

Lexar Media has now gotten a total of $465.4 million out of Toshiba for the theft of trade secrets in digital camera technology.

A PC World article sums up the dispute between the two companies:

"Toshiba and Lexar previously were business partners. Lexar sued Toshiba because the Japanese company used its relationship with Lexar to gain access to the company's business plans and technology while simultaneously working with SanDisk, a major rival of Lexar, on similar flash memory technology, Lexar says.

Based on the jury's findings, Lexar says it intends to ask for an injunction that bars Toshiba products found to include the Lexar technology from sale in the U.S., it says. These include NAND flash memory chips and memory cards that incorporate the chips."

A Mercury News article says:

"Although the $84 million in punitive damages was far short of the $1 billion Lexar sought, the company said it was pleased with the jury's decision. The total award of $465.4 million for Lexar is believed to be the largest intellectual-property verdict in state history and the third-largest in U.S. history, according to Lexar."

"I think the jury tried to send a message by awarding almost a half-billion dollars that they were offended by what Toshiba did, and they should have been,"said Lexar's lead counsel, Matt Powers.

There is another hearing scheduled for April 13.

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