SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY

Toshiba Corp. and Grid Systems Corp. have reached a patent licensing agreement for the manufacture and sale of laptop computers.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed by the two companies.

Toshiba manufactures laptop computers for the U.S. market at its large Irvine plant. Laptop computers are an increasingly popular type of lightweight microcomputer that can be easily carried around.

Grid, a unit of Tandy Corp. of Fort Worth, Tex., in April claimed broad patent rights for a large number of laptop computers, including those made by Toshiba. Since then, Tandy has been negotiating licenses with various computer makers.