Acer Inc, the world's No. 3 personal computer maker, said yesterday it is asking its contract manufacturers to share responsibility in the lawsuit filed by larger rival Hewlett-Packard Co.
Acer has filed a claim with the US court to ask Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
PAY ATTENTION
"We have to ask our suppliers to pay attention to the matter," Scott Lin (
HP last month filed its second lawsuit within a month against the Taiwanese maker, saying Acer computers infringed on five HP patents.
The litigation seeks to stop Acer from selling some desktop computers, notebooks, media centers and related products for home and business use in the US, plus cash compensation.
"This is another dimension of business competition, which is inevitable since we've moved up to the No. 3 position," Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) said on April 27.
He then said that Acer would analyze HP's infringement claims and seek support from the suppliers that Acer purchases its computers from.
FEELING CONFIDENT
Acer does not seem particularly concerned about the litigation issue, as its president Gianfranco Lanci said the company would become the world's No. 2 notebook computer maker this year, overtaking Dell Inc, on new models sold in the US, its fastest-growing market.
"We are quite optimistic about the US," Lanci said in an interview from his Milan office. "We are going to replace the entire product line" within three months.
Lanci aims to repeat his success in Europe, where he steered Acer to become the No. 2 computer maker by building ties with retailers and distributors.
Acer is pinning its hopes on a new product line released last week in Taipei.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last