Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest PC DRAM maker, yesterday filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging that Elpida Memory Inc, the Japanese memorychip maker’s US unit and its US customer Kingston Technology Co infringed on four of its patents.
Aside from a request to launch an investigation, Nanya Technology also demanded that the ITC ban the three firms from importing and selling the DRAM chips and storage products that use the contested patents.
The chipmaker said it planned to file other patent infringement lawsuits soon in district courts in North Carolina or other areas of the US to seek damages from Elpida, Nanya spokesman Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) told a teleconference yesterday.
THE FIRST
Nanya Technology is the first local PC DRAM company to file a complaint accusing its larger global rival of illegally using its intellectually property rights.
Taiwanese firms have long lagged behind their rivals in developing next-generation technologies and relied on technological transfers to grow.
The Taoyuan-based firm’s move comes on the heels of Nanya’s thwarted attempts to settle patent infringement lawsuits that Elpida filed with the ITC in September and last week with a district court in North Carolina.
FORCED TO ACT
“Elpida has shown no intention to settle the cases. We are forced to take legal action to protect the company’s interests,” Pai said.
“The damage and royalties Elpida requested are totally unacceptable. The price it has asked for is far from the market price,” he said.
The price of the benchmark PC DRAM increased 0.3 percent yesterday to an average US$0.67 per unit, according to Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp’s real-time trading information (集邦科技).
“We have strong confidence that we’ll win our case,” Pai said.
The company has won several ITC cases, including one against Kyocera Corp, he said.
He said the first ruling on its latest complaint would come in the first quarter of next year.
“[Signing] cross-licensing [agreements] would not be a bad result,” he said.
Revenues from the North American market accounted for 20 percent to 40 percent of Nanya Technology’s revenues, Pai said, adding that: “No immediate impact on the company’s operation is seen at the moment.”
PATENTS
Nanya Technology holds more than 1,000 patents registered in the US and Taiwan, he said, and it adds about 100 new patents to its portfolio annually.
Nanya Technology shares plummeted 6.43 percent to NT$2.33 yesterday, while Elpida shares rose 0.94 percent to ¥322 on the Tokyo stock market.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”