CHINA
J&J happy case is over
Health care giant Johnson and Johnson (J&J) says it is pleased to put a legal dispute behind it after a court ordered it to pay compensation to a former distributor under an anti-monopoly law. Thursday’s ruling said the company was guilty of “vertical monopoly” for setting minimum prices its distributors charged for surgical sutures. It noted that J&J has stopped that practice, but ordered it to pay 530,000 yuan (US$85,000) to a local distributor that said it lost potential sales due to the restriction. Lawyers said the ruling indicates that authorities are stepping up anti-monopoly investigations. The ruling was the first of its kind against a Fortune 500 company under Beijing’s five-year-old anti-monopoly law, according to lawyers and local news reports.
CHINA
Shipbuilding plan issued
The State Council issued a three- year plan to upgrade and restructure its troubled shipbuilding industry through 2015, a further move to stabilize economic growth through reform, Xinhua news agency reported. The sector faces “unprecedented, severe challenges” as a lack of new orders, due to weakness in the global shipping market, has exacerbated overcapacity in the industry, Xinhua said yesterday, citing a government document. At the same time, companies should be confident as “the potential in the domestic market remains relatively large,” it said. The world’s biggest shipbuilding nation may see a third of its more than 1,600 yards shut down in about five years, according to Wang Jinlian, head of the industry association. The sector is among those including iron and steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum and flat glass that must accelerate the phasing out of overcapacity, according to a July 24 statement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
BRAZIL
Games could cost more
Olympic organizers may have to use US$700 million in government money to meet the operating budget for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Leo Gryner, chief operating officer of the organizing committee, on Friday said that a shortfall might develop if local organizers fall behind in landing sponsors. “Right now as our budget stands we need this US$700 million,” Gryner said at news conference to mark the three-year countdown to the opening of the Olympics. He said the budget could be as much as US$4 billion — up from the original estimate of US$2.8 billion that was submitted before Rio won the Games in 2009.
SOFTWARE
Google seeks suit dismissal
Google Inc said Microsoft Corp acted too hastily in suing US customs officials in a patent dispute over whether Motorola Mobility phones should be blocked at the border. Google, in a court filing on Friday, asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit brought by Microsoft that accused US Customs and Border Protection of failing to enforce an order to ban imports of the phones. Microsoft should instead have taken its complaint back to the International Trade Commission (ITC), Google said. Microsoft won an order from the ITC that prevents Google’s Motorola Mobility from shipping Asian-made phones that have a feature that synchronizes calendars between phones and computers. The suit is “an unprecedented attempt” to circumvent the administrative process, Google said. “Customs noted that the ITC has yet to consider, much less resolve, the issue Microsoft asks this court to decide: Whether Motorola’s use of Google’s synchronization protocol infringes Microsoft’s patent.”
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last