Vendors settle disputes separately South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. and Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., better known as Panasonic, have both settled patent infringement lawsuits with Taiwanese companies, they said.LG’s dispute has run more than six years and involves patents for PCI bus technology. PCI is a standard interface technology used for plug-in expansion cards.LG sued First International Computer Inc. in May 2000 and Compal Electronics Inc. in April 2001 alleging they were using LG’s proprietary PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnection) technology in computers they were making and selling to major U.S. computer brands. After an initial defeat at trial court, which ruled the companies were not infringing on LG’s technology, the South Korean company won a victory in July 2006 when an appeals court overturned the original ruling. A further trial was set to begin in January 2008 in California but that will not take place now thanks to the agreement between the three companies.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Panasonic said on Monday that it had resolved a patent infringement case brought against Taiwan’s CMC Magnetics Corp. and two of CMC’s U.S. affiliates, Hotan Corp. and KHypermedia Corp. The case involved three patents related to recordable DVD technology. The dispute was settled with Panasonic and CMC entering into a patent cross license agreement covering manufacture and sale of recordable and rewritable DVDs and CDs. The ten-year license involves CMC paying an undisclosed royalty to Panasonic, the Japanese company said. Technology Industry