■ Currency remains `stable'
The nation's central bank said the New Taiwan dollar is "relatively stable" compared with other major currencies.
The Central Bank of China issued a table that compared the NT dollar's 0.11 percent drop against its US counterpart yesterday with the yen's 0.49 percent decline and the euro's 0.8 percent fall. The central bank's calculations were based on those currencies' exchange rates from the 4pm close of trade in Taiwan on Sept. 22 to the local close Friday.
The NT dollar Friday had its lowest close in Taipei in more than 10 months versus the US currency, dropping NT$0.038 to close at NT$33.173, the weakest since Nov. 4.
Turnover was US$1.12 billion, up from US$1.04 billion the previous day.
■ Siemens' logo to go
Taiwan consumer electronics group BenQ Corp (明基) is to start putting its own logo on the mobile phones it acquired from German electronics giant Siemens from spring 2007, BenQ's chief marketing officer Jerry Wang (王文燦) said in a newspaper interview published yesterday.
BenQ acquired Siemens' loss-making mobile phone handsets division in June and, as part of the deal, bought the right to use the Siemens logo on the phones for a period of five years.
But Wang told the business daily Handelsblatt that BenQ would start replacing the Siemens logo with its own from 2007.
"In countries where BenQ is not yet known as a mobile brand, we will use the name Siemens for another 18 months," Wang said.
Siemens finally sealed the fate of its mobile phone handsets division in June, agreeing to pay BenQ about 300 million euros (US$363 million) to take the loss-making business off its hands.
The deal comes into effect at the beginning of October.
■ Government to sell bonds
The government plans to sell NT$95 billion (US$2.9 billion) of bonds in the fourth quarter to help fund spending, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its Web site Friday.
The planned amount is 9.5 percent lower than NT$105 billion sold in the October-December period last year.
The ministry plans to auction NT$30 billion of five-year bonds on Oct. 4, NT$30 billion of 15-year debt on Nov. 11 and NT$35 billion of 10-year bonds Dec. 23, according to the statement.
The government needs to sell debt to fund a budget deficit that the Cabinet predicts will rise to NT$334.7 billion this year, up from an estimated NT$304 billion last year.
The plan will bring the government's total bond sales this year to NT$445 billion, 4.3 percent less than NT$465 billion sold last year.
■ LCD case thrown out
A federal judge dismissed claims brought by LG.Philips LCD Co, the world's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, in a patent lawsuit against Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) of Taiwan.
US District Judge Consuelo Marshall in Los Angeles said LG.Philips didn't fully own the rights to a patent for some technology used in LCDs when it filed the suit in August 2002.
The judge allowed LG.Philips to proceed with related claims against Chunghwa's parent, Tatung Co (大同), saying that case was filed after LG.Philips obtained full rights to the patent.
The patents were only temporarily unenforceable and LG.Philips isn't barred from bringing new infringement claims against Chunghwa, Marshall said.
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