Taiwanese compact disc producer Gigastorage Corp (國碩科技) has signed a preliminary agreement with rival Royal Philips Electronics NV to settle prolonged patent lawsuits, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
On Saturday, Gigastorage said that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Philips over IPR disputes regarding the manufacturing of CD-R and CD-RW media that began in 2001.
The company did not disclose details about the agreement, saying only that it was prepared to discuss payments to the Dutch company.
Gigastorage's board approved the plans to settle the patent lawsuits with Philips on Friday. Its shares rose NT$0.75 (US$0.02), or 6.91 percent, to close at NT$11.6 on Saturday.
Gigastorage stock has shot up 37.28 percent since the beginning of this year.
Gigastorage's attempt to settle the patent disputes with Philips, however, may not mean an end to looming IPR disputes between Taiwan and the EU.
The EU is close to concluding a probe into the legitimacy of a ruling made by Taiwan's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in 2005 in favor of Gigastorage.
The investigation came in response to a Philips request.
The IPO imposed compulsory licensing on five CD-R and CD-RW patents owned by Philips, allowing Gigastorage to use the Dutch company's patents in manufacturing CD-R and CD-RW discs without paying royalties and allowing Gigastorage to sell the products in the domestic market.
"We are closely monitoring the development. If the EU rules in favor of Philips, we'll have to solve the disputes under the framework of the WTO," Tsai Lien-sheng (
"This may mark the first time we seek to solve IPR problem with another WTO member within the system after Taiwan joined the trade body," Tsai said.
Gigastorage said it did not believe the case would develop into an international issue.
"According to our understanding, Philips may withdraw its request to the EU," Gigastorage spokesman Carl Lee (李朝欽) said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Lee said that the company expected to sign a definitive agreement with Philips by the end of this year, adding that the settlement, if reached, would not have a serious impact on Gigastorage's financial situation.
"We should be able to make the payments in annual installments. We would have to pay lawyers anyway if the lawsuits continued," he said.
Gigastorage has paid no royalties to Philips since 2001 after filing lawsuits in the US, saying that Philips had overcharged companies using its patents to make CD-R and CD-RW discs.
The end of the lawsuits with Philips would have a positive impact on Gigastorage's ability to sell its products internationally, the company's filing said.
Gigastorage posted a loss of NT$155 million for the first six months of the year.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS