Meanwhile, the court ordered Toshiba to notify, at least two weeks in advance, the Western Digital side of the completion of procedures on the sale of the unit, Toshiba Memory Corp.

The US court thus left a decision on whether the sale procedures should be halted to the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce's International Court of Arbitration, with which Western Digital, Toshiba's flash memory business partner, filed a similar complaint in May.

As a result of discussions based on a proposal shown by judges for the two sides at the California court, both companies agreed that Toshiba will publicly announce within 24 hours the signing of a final accord on the unit sale and give Western Digital a prior notice of two weeks or more regarding the completion of the sale procedures.

The California court's decision effectively put an end to the US litigation between the Japanese and US firms over Toshiba's chip unit sale.

The court order will be effective until 60 days after the arbitration court becomes ready to begin a trial of the case.

"We are very pleased to have reached this mutually acceptable understanding which is effective for a very limited time and which recognizes Toshiba's right to negotiate and sign a definitive agreement for the sale of its memory business," a Toshiba official said in a statement. (Jiji Press)