Honda Motor Co, the world's biggest maker of motorcycles, won a court ruling stopping a Chinese company from selling Hongda brand motorbikes, adding to signs China is getting tougher on intellectual property theft. \nA Beijing court told Chongqing Lifan Industry Group Co (重慶力帆實業) to pay Honda 1.47 million yuan (US$177,600) in damages and cease sales or exports of Hongda motorcycles, Honda spokesman Masaya Nagai said today. Gao Zhihai, a spokesman at No. 2 Intermediate People's Court of Beijing, said Lifan lost the suit yesterday. \nHonda, General Motors Corp and Toyota Motor Corp have all sued Chinese companies, arguing lookalike designs or logos are costing them business in the world's third-largest auto market. \nChina's Supreme People's Court increased penalties for copying software, movies and other intellectual property this month, responding to pressure from the US and the EU. \n"China's government is taking the international trademark and patent issues more seriously and it has to," said Paul Gao, a Shanghai-based principal and automotive analyst at McKinsey & Co, which advises foreign carmakers on investing in China. \nTokyo-based Honda's shares rose 0.8 percent to 5,300 yen and at the close of trade in Tokyo. \nImposing tougher penalties on trademark and copyright pirates may help China head off the threat of WTO actions by the US and EU. The US has said piracy is the biggest problem in the US$181 billion commercial relationship between the two nations. \nToyota last year lost a suit against China Geely Group Co (吉利控股), which it accused of using a logo that looks like the Japanese carmaker's marque. Yamaha Motor Co in 2002 received 900,000 yuan in damages from Tianjin Gangtian Corp and won a court order stopping the company from selling a lookalike scooter. \nGeneral Motors' South Korean unit GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co last week sued Chery Automobile Co (奇瑞汽車), claiming that the Chinese carmaker's QQ minicars used parts and designs from its Matiz minicar without permission. GM Daewoo's spokesman Rob Leggat could not be reached for comment. \nHonda's victory "is a sign of the growing maturity of intellectual property rights recognition among China's judges and lawyers," said Guan Anping, managing partner of Anping & Partners, a Beijing-based law firm specializing in intellectual property rights. "The government is strengthening legislation and courts are beginning to enforce laws." \nLifan, based in southwestern China's Chongqing municipality, is the nation's largest privately owned maker of two-wheel vehicles. An official responsible for Lifan's intellectual property rights declined to comment. Lifan's chairman Yin Mingshan couldn't be reached to comment on yesterday's verdict. \nLifan makes 1 million motorcycles and 2 million engines a year, according to its Web site. The company, started with 200,000 yuan of capital 12 years ago, reported a 15 percent increase sales last year to 4.6 billion yuan. The company's latest available income figure was in 2002, when it earned 205 million yuan in pretax profit, according to its Web site. \nHonda expects to sell 12.5 million two-wheel vehicles next year, 17 percent more than this year, according to a forecast made last week. Honda owns three motorcycle ventures in the Chinese cities of Chongqing, Guangzhou and Haikou.
DEVELOPING TALENT: The electronics contractor is looking to recruit people to work in core tech fields and emerging industries like electric cars and robotics Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, has launched a recruitment drive, offering a monthly salary of no less than NT$45,000 (US$1,485) to university graduates. For those with a master’s degree, the starting pay would be NT$52,000 per month at the minimum, while doctorate degree holders would receive at least NT$60,000 a month, Hon Hai said a statement issued early this week. The latest recruitment drive is aimed at attracting talent in core technology fields — artificial intelligence, semiconductors and next-generation mobile communications — and emerging industries — electric vehicles, digital healthcare and robotics, the
MRT TRAVEL FALLS: In February, ridership on the Taipei MRT System fell 8.96 percent from an average of 2.01 million per day in January Scooter sales jumped 13 percent last month as more commuters turned to two-wheelers to avoid public transportation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest statistics showed. Sales expanded to 74,493 units last month, compared with 65,913 units in February, statistics released on Wednesday by Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業) and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications showed. In the first quarter, aggregate sales slid 0.51 percent year-over-year to 186,627 units, from 187,580 units, data showed. Kwang Yang, the nation’s biggest scooter manufacturer, continued to lead the market by selling 24,136 vehicles last month, growing 6.12 percent from 20,785 units in the previous month, while
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the nation’s leading PC vendor, yesterday launched its first dual-screen gaming laptop powered by Intel Corp’s latest central processing units (CPUs). The PC manufacturer’s announcement closely followed the US chipmaker’s unveiling of its 10th Generation Core H-series, the fastest commercial mobile processors with speeds of up to 5 gigahertz. Although Asustek’s Zephyrus Duo 15, the highlight of its Republic of Gamers line, is not the company’s first laptop with two screens, it is its first designed specifically for gaming. Nestled between the primary display panel and the keyboard, the secondary display, which Asustek calls the ScreenPad Plus, is angled
NO ILL EFFECT: Last month’s data mainly reflected deals made in February, when the spread of COVID-19 was still relatively mild in Taiwan, housing brokers said Housing transactions in the six special municipalities totaled 19,824 units last month, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, brokers said, citing government data. Last month’s data mainly reflected deals made in February, when the pinch of the COVID-19 pandemic was not yet evident, they said. Taoyuan posted the largest improvement, with housing transactions soaring 36.6 percent year-on-year to 3,676 units, local government data showed. Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) attributed the pickup to the completion of two presale residential projects in the municipality. Houses in Taoyuan have increasingly gained in popularity in the past few year years due to relatively affordable home prices and
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