TECO Electric & Machinery Co (東元電機), a local manufacturer of home appliances and telecommunications equipment, said yesterday it was suing Sisvel S.p.A. and Royal Philips Electronics NV for at least 1 million euros (US$1.45 million) each in response to patent infringement allegations.
On Friday, the first day of the IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) exposition in Berlin, TECO was accused by Sisvel and Philips of MP3 and DVD patent infringements in its 13 Green TV products.
On the same day, 220 German customs agents seized items from 68 other booths at the exhibition in response to complaints filed by Sisvel. The seized products included CD players, set-top boxes, MP3 players and flat-screen TVs.
After an investigation in Germany, TECO was cleared of the charges. But as a result of Sisvel’s accusation and the subsequent probe, TECO missed the entire six days of the trade show, the company said.
“Sisvel has been acting as a quasi-licensing arm of Philips, going around suing various companies in Europe,” TECO chairman Liu Chao-kai (劉兆凱) said at a media briefing yesterday.
Sisvel is an Italian consumer electronics (CE) outfit that recently bought three of Philips’ MP3 patents, while Philips is Europe’s biggest CE producer.
“We are particularly infuriated by this unwarranted raid. After all, anyone can see that our Green TVs don’t even come with an MP3 player or built-in DVD player. How can these companies say TECO infringed their patents?” Liu asked.
TECO said the lawsuits would go through Germany’s local district court first. The amount of compensation for lost business opportunities will be considered separately at a later date, Vincent Hsieh (謝穎昇), executive adviser in TECO’s legal division, told reporters yesterday.
TECO shares fell NT$0.75, or 5.45 percent, yesterday to NT$13.0 on the Taiwan stock exchange.
The IFA is the world’s leading trade show for the general public and the CE industry’s No. 1 venue for doing business.
A similar incident occurred at an exhibition in Hannover, Germany, in March. However, different authorities were involved in seizing the goods.
“Previously, only technology proficient handlers could take goods from the exhibit, but this time the German police were involved and clearly had no understanding of the products they were seizing,” Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) president and chief executive officer Chao Yuen-chuan (趙永全) said at the same briefing.
To avoid future mishaps, TAITRA has been conducting numerous workshops and forums in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung and Hsinchu, inviting Taiwanese businesses to share their experiences and learn about their legal rights, Chao said.
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