Apple Inc won a round of a US International Trade Commission case brought by Samsung Electronics Co over patented technology in the iPhone and iPad tablet computer, its second US legal victory in a month over its largest smartphone competitor.
Apple did not violate Samsung’s patent rights, ITC Judge James Gildea said in a notice posted yesterday on the agency’s Web site. The judge’s findings are subject to review by the full commission, which has the power to block imports of products that infringe US patents.
The judge’s findings follow a federal jury’s ruling in San Jose, California, on Aug. 24 awarding Apple more than US$1 billion in damages, after deciding that Samsung copies the look and some features of the iPhone. The California jury rejected claims that Apple infringed other Samsung patents.
“Apple at the ITC is bulletproof,” said Rodney Sweetland, a lawyer at Duane Morris in Washington, who specializes in trade cases. “Nobody can get any traction against them there. The lesson is, if you want to get relief against Apple, it’s going to have to be in a foreign forum where it doesn’t have the clout or the cachet it has at the ITC or the northern district of California.”
FOUR PATENTS
Gildea said there was no infringement of any of the four patents in the ITC case, and also determined that Samsung had not proven it had a domestic industry that used the patents, a requirement that is unique to the trade agency. The judge did not provide the reasons behind his findings. The opinion is to become public after both sides get a chance to redact confidential information.
CONFIDENT
“We remain confident that the full commission will ultimately reach a final determination that affirms our position that Apple must be held accountable for free-riding on our technological innovations,” Samsung spokesman Adam Yates said. “We are proud of our long history of innovation in the mobile industry and will continue to defend our intellectual property rights.”
Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple, said the company had no comment. Apple has previously won cases brought against it at the trade agency by HTC Corp (宏達電) and Google Inc’s Motorola Mobility, two other manufacturers of phones that run on Google’s Android operating system. Apple lost its case against Motorola Mobility, and won an order that forced HTC to remove a feature from its phones.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has its own ITC complaint pending against Samsung, and the judge in that case is scheduled to release his findings on Oct. 19. The two companies, which together make about half the smartphones sold in the world, are embroiled in more than 30 lawsuits spanning four continents.
“From a corporate perspective, Samsung needs to get an upper hand and they need to bring their A game,” said Will Stofega, program director at Framingham, Massachusetts-based researcher IDC. “There are a lot of things that they have going for them. They are a very valid and creative company.”
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
CHINESE EXPORT CURBS: A dispute between China and the Netherlands could halt chip supply, affecting vehicle production, US and European auto associations said Groups representing major automakers late on Thursday warned that a chip disruption stemming from a dispute between China and the Dutch government could quickly affect US auto production. Automakers and their suppliers received notice from chipmaker Nexperia (安世半導體) last week that it could no longer guarantee delivery of its chips, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said, adding that manufacturing could be significantly disrupted. In the US, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Hyundai and nearly all other major automakers, urged a quick resolution. “If the shipment of automotive chips doesn’t resume — quickly — it’s going to
RSS