Court Orders Seizure of Mitsubishi Assets for Forced Labor Victims

A district court approved a request by victims of wartime forced labor to seize Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' trademark and patent assets on Monday.

The decision by the Daejeon District Court came after the Japanese firm refused to heed an earlier order by the Supreme Court to compensate Koreans who were forced to labor for the company during the occupation.

Mitsubishi Heavy will be barred from exercising two trademark rights and six patents which are worth nearly W800 million (US$1=W1,134). It has become the second Japanese company to get slammed with a seizure order by a court here.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal was also stripped of some assets here in January for the same reason.