MediaTek Inc (
MediaTek officials say Via copied its technology in controller chips that run the CD-ROMS found on nearly all personal computers. The company also filed suit against AOpen Inc, which is using the chipset inside its CD-ROM machines.
"MediaTek believes that our innovation is central to our success and we intend to protect our proprietary technology to the fullest extent of the law," said Yu Ming-to, spokesman for MediaTek.
"We cannot allow companies to take our technology and use it to enter this business. Legitimate competitors must make the investments and carry out the engineering work required to design these advanced products."
But in a case still pending in US courts, MediaTek competitor Oak Technologies, a US-based firm, sued MediaTek over the same product in April 1998, seeking to bar it from the US market.
The two firms make chips for identical markets, optical devices like CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-recordable and rewritable machines.
MediaTek made a name for itself in the market last year, when profit margins shot over 50 percent and its stock skyrocketed from its listing price of NT$198 per share to over NT$700 per share. Its margins remain at or above 50 percent, the same level as US and Japanese companies in the same market.
Yesterday, the firm's shares closed down the market limit 7 percent at NT$432, while VIA slumped 4 percent to NT$72.5 per share.
Analysts said competition in chips for optical devices would only intensify and more lawsuits are certain.
"Mediatek only has one product line, it is not good for them to lose any market share," said Paul Wang, analyst at SG Securities in Taipei. As companies begin to use VIA-designed chips, MediaTek has had to lower prices.
US district courts are authorized to preside over international patent infringement cases and can bar products containing stolen intellectual property from entering the world's largest market as well as award monetary damages. MediaTek has asked that the case by tried before a jury in Southern California.
MediaTek's customers are Taiwanese makers of CD and DVD-ROM products, like Lite-On Technology Corp (源興科技), another firm analysts favored throughout the year. The two firms complemented one another with optical machines from Lite-On powered by MediaTek chips, which grabbed orders worldwide, according to Wang.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
STABLE DEMAND: Delta supplies US clients in the aerospace, defense and machinery segments, and expects second-half sales to be similar to the first half Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) expects its US automation business to remain steady in the second half, with no signs of weakening client demand. With demand from US clients remaining solid, its performance in the second half is expected to be similar to that of the first half, Andy Liu (劉佳容), general manager of the company’s industrial automation business group, said on the sidelines of the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei on Wednesday. The company earlier reported that revenue from its automation business grew 7 percent year-on-year to NT$27.22 billion (US$889.98 million) in the first half, accounting for 11 percent
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
RSS