Canon, which currently owns 17.9 percent of NeXT, has filed an official objection to the claim with the Japanese patent office, according to Tom Lavelle, NeXT general counsel. He said that NeXT itself has not yet fully studied the Toshiba claims. Unlike the U.S. patent system, patents in Japan are published in order to give competing companies a chance to object before the patent is awarded.
Ð Simson L. Garfinkel