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Business Quick Take

■ COMPUTERS
Gateway taps China market
Gateway Inc says it has begun selling computers in China as part of a broader effort to increase its sales outside the US. To enter the Chinese market, Gateway said it has tapped China's largest electronics distributor, Digital China Holdings Ltd (神州數碼控股). As of last month, sales of outside of the US accounted for 9.5 percent of Gateway's retail sales, the company said in regulatory filings. The Gateway computers aimed at the Chinese market are similar to US models, except they have been modified to include, among other things, Chinese-language keyboards. Gateway ranks No. 3 in the US in terms of sales, behind Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc.

■ AGRICULTURE
Kentucky ginseng faces ban
Exports of wild US ginseng could be cut by some 20 percent if the US Fish and Wildlife Service bars Kentucky from selling the herb internationally. Kentucky, the leading US producer of ginseng, may have jeopardized its right to export the highly prized roots by not adequately policing their harvest and sale, said Pat Ford, a Fish and Wildlife Service botanist who oversees the US ginseng program. Industry representatives say barring Kentucky ginseng would reduce US exports of the roots to China and other Asian countries by about one-fifth and push the price to record levels. Kentucky accounts for 6.8 tonnes of the annual US ginseng exports, which total about 27 tonnes.

■ PATENTS
Lonestar sues Nintendo
A Texas company has sued Nintendo Co's US arm, charging that it infringed on a patent in designing the Wii video game system. Lonestar Inventions LP asked for triple damages, but no specific amount, and an injunction against Nintendo using the patented technology. The lawsuit was filed last week in federal district court in Tyler. In 1993, one of Lonestar's principals, Osman Akcasu, patented a structure for capacitors that took up less space on a semiconductor chip by using parallel conducting strips. Lonestar claimed that the same design shows up in Nintendo products but didn't identify any.

■ FINANCE
Tax bill worries Blackstone
As US lawmakers began a push to end favorable tax treatment for private equity firms, Blackstone Group said on Friday that such a move could harm its financial standing. Blackstone issued its caution a day after two senators unveiled legislation that seeks to impose higher tax rates on equity firms. The senators, Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Chuck Grassley, have also urged the US Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission to review their tax concerns about Blackstone's planned initial public offering. Blackstone said the measure would not impact the firm for several years.

■ TOOTHPASTE
PRC brands axed in Japan
Two Japanese companies have recalled hundreds of thousands of Chinese toothpaste products sold to hotels across the country after finding they contained chemicals used in antifreeze, the health ministry said. The products, which contained tiny amounts of diethylene glycol, or DEG, come in a small tube, each with a disposable toothbrush for hotel guests, the ministry said in a statement late on Friday. The ministry said there had been no reports of health problems caused by the toothpaste.


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