OSAKA (Kyodo) Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday it has filed a damages suit in a U.S. court charging Taiwan's MediaTek Inc. and two other firms with infringement of its patents for integrated circuit chips.

The two other firms -- California-based OPPO Digital Inc. and Taiwan's Micro-Star International Co. -- use the MediaTek chips in question in their DVD equipment.

Matsushita said it filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for Northern California after bilateral negotiations failed to convince MediaTek to agree to get a Matsushita license.

According to the electronics giant it has taken the action in the U.S. court after negotiations, launched in June 2004, failed to get MediaTek to agree to take a Matsushita license.

The suit urges the three firms to pay damages and halt sales of the MediaTek chips and DVD devices using them.