FUJITSU SAYS SOME ISSUES RESOLVED IN IBM DISPUTE
Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T> and International
Business Machines Corp <IBM.N> (IBM) had resolved some issues
in a longstanding dispute over software copyright protection,
Fujitsu said in a prospectus for a warrant bond recently issued
in London.
    The dispute involved questions of contractual
interpretation arising from a 1983 agreement between the
companies, the prospectus said.
    Under question was how much software information the firms
were obliged to disclose to each other. The case had been
before the American Arbitration Association (AAA) since 1985.
    "By subsequent agreements, the parties have resolved some of
the issues and have established procedures to resolve presently
outstanding disputes with the involvement of the members of the
panel of arbitrators," the prospectus said.
    "The Company is not in a position to predict with certainty
the outcome of this process and its effect on the future
results or operations, financial or otherwise, of the Group," it
said.
    A Fujitsu spokeswoman declined to comment on the
prospectus, noting the dispute remained under arbitration by
the AAA. An IBM spokesman here also declined comment.
    Last November the AAA ordered both companies to maintain
the confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings and said
that both Fujitsu and IBM had agreed that no additional comment
on the subject be made.
    Late last year, IBM and Hitachi Ltd <HIT.T> said they had
agreed to revise a separate 1983 agreement which arose out of
software disputes similar to those between Fujitsu and IBM.
 REUTER
