Nippon Steel Corp. said Thursday it has filed lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. and Chinese steelmaker Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., alleging infringement of a patent related to a key steel product for electric vehicle and seeking damages of 20 billion yen ($176 million) from each company.

Japan's largest steelmaker has also asked the Tokyo District Court to issue an injunction prohibiting Toyota from manufacturing and selling electric vehicles made with non-oriented electrical steel sheets suspected of violating its patent, it said.

Nippon Steel said it had discussed the matter with the two companies but failed to reach a resolution.

==Kyodo

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