A Japanese restaurant operator yesterday claimed victory in a trademark lawsuit over the use of “Sanuki,” with the intellectual property court ruling that Namchow Chemical Industrial Co (南僑化工), a supplier of edible oils, detergents and frozen dough, did not hold exclusive rights over the brand name.
The response came after Namchow on Wednesday posted advertisements in major newspapers alleging that the verdict was unfair and that it was “politically motivated.”
The court ruling stated that Namchow did not have any claims over the trademark “Sanuki,” which refers to a region in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, that produces flour ideal for making Japanese wheat-flour noodles known as udon.
“The ruling means that from now on, other operators can also use the trademark Sanuki when selling and marketing their food services to the public, as this is no longer a trademark belonging to Namchow,” said Chung Wen-yueh (鍾文岳), an attorney at Formosa Transnational (萬國法律事務所), which represents Kabashima Shoji, operator of the Dosan Kanroku restaurant chain.
Claiming Sanuki as an exclusive trademark would be like claiming to own the trademark “Hsinchu,” banning other sellers from using a name that refers to a city in Taiwan, Chung said.
The controversy arose in November 2007, when Namchow sent an official warning to Donsan Kanroku, claiming the restaurant chain had infringed on its trademark because it was promoting its own “Sanuki udon” to diners.
After receiving the warning, the Japanese restaurant filed a complaint with the Ministry of Economic Affair’s Intellectual Property Office in April 2008, demanding -annulment of the trademark.
The office ruled in favor of the restaurant in December last year, but Namchow filed an appeal with the ministry’s petitions and appeals committee.
After the committee maintained the verdict, Namchow brought the case to the intellectual property court, which said early this month that Namchow had no exclusive right to the Sanuki trademark.
Namchow fought back with newspaper advertisements on Wednesday, saying that the intellectual property office had granted it the trademark Sanuki 13 years ago and that since then the company had put a great deal of effort into bringing the brand to global markets.
It said the verdict would “destroy the brand value of the Sanuki trademark and dissuade consumers and companies from investing in the brand through legal channels.”
In addition to frozen udon noodles, Namchow produces ice cream, juice concentrate and cookies via its subsidiaries, and it markets the products of Nabisco, Kellogg’s and Haagen-Dazs in Taiwan.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
BUBBLE? Only a handful of companies are seeing rapid revenue growth and higher valuations, and it is not enough to call the AI trend a transformation, an analyst said Artificial intelligence (AI) is entering a more challenging phase next year as companies move beyond experimentation and begin demanding clear financial returns from a technology that has delivered big gains to only a small group of early adopters, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan said yesterday. Most organizations have been able to justify AI investments through cost recovery or modest efficiency gains, but few have achieved meaningful revenue growth or long-term competitive advantage, the consultancy said in its 2026 AI Business Predictions report. This growing performance gap is forcing executives to reconsider how AI is deployed across their organizations, it said. “Many companies
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS