Taiwanese IC designer Mediatek said on Thursday that it has changed its DVD user interface and has provided the new user interface to customers in the wake of a lawsuit filed by consumer-chip maker ESS Technology.

California-based ESS announced earlier in a statement that it has filed a lawsuit against Mediatek for what it called copyright infringement of its DVD firmware and user interface. Mediatek "intentionally and unlawfully copied ESS's DVD firmware and user interface in Mediatek�s integrated DVD products," it said.

The Taiwanese company, however, said that "there are many factual and legal issues in this case, e.g. the limited copyright protection for user interface under US copyright law." The company has retained American attorneys to handle the case, the company said.

Mediatek, however, decided to modify the user interface and provide the new user interface to customers because it wants to avoid potential impact to its customers' interest, it said.

There is no infringement claim against Mediatek's DVD player chipsets, nor does the case involve the core technology of the firmware used with the company�s DVD player chipsets, the Taiwanese company added.