LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) yesterday said it had teamed up with a US patent-holding company as an increasing number of technology firms worldwide resort to patent lawsuits to ward off potential competition.
It did not disclose the financial terms of the partnership.
The Taoyuan-based company said in a statement it had signed “a set of multi-faceted intellectual property agreements” with the Bellevue, Washington-based Intellectual Ventures, granting Chunghwa Picture access to the US firm’s portfolio of more than 35,000 intellectual property assets.
The agreement also allows Chunghwa Picture to participate in Intellectual Ventures’ “IP for Defense Program,” increasing its ammunition in potential patent lawsuits, as the program offers customers key patents to support counter-assertion, reduce liabilities and achieve favorable licensing terms, the company said.
“In recent years, with the rapid advancement in display technologies, the role played by intellectual property rights [IPR] has become increasingly important,” Chunghwa Picture chief technology officer Liang Jang-jeng (梁建錚) said in the statement.
“To prevent potential future IPR disputes from affecting the competitiveness of our products, we have not only worked to enhance our ability to create IPs, but we have also entered into a contract with Intellectual Ventures to strengthen our position in ‘IP for Defense’ and in IP negotiations in order to decrease potential losses for the company,” he added.
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s second-largest LCD panel maker, and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co are currently suing each other over LCD patent claims at the US International Trade Commission. The Taiwanese company won a patent lawsuit against LG Displays Co in May last year.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc