Shanghai-based semiconductor company Genitop Research Co (集通數碼科技) yesterday said it would seek a US$100 billion penalty against Qualcomm Inc for trademark infringement — almost as much as the US mobile chip titan’s entire market capitalization.
The claims from Genitop come after Beijing fined the US firm nearly US$1 billion for monopoly offenses.
Genitop, which develops Chinese-character information processing software and semiconductor chips, sued Qualcomm last year, alleging it had infringed its China-registered trademarks by using the Chinese phrase “gaotong” (高通) in its Chinese company name and product brand.
Genitop said that it registered the phrase, which means “high communication,” as its trademark in 1992 and demanded 100 million yuan (US$16 million) in compensation.
The case has yet to be decided, but Genitop yesterday said it would ask the Chinese government to probe what it called Qualcomm’s trademark infringements in the nation.
Genitop would seek an administrative penalty of US$100 billion, Genitop’s lawyer Chen Ruojian said, adding that under Chinese regulations, such penalties can be set at three times a firm’s sales, and Genitop arrived at the figure by combining three years of Qualcomm’s turnover in China.
“We will file a formal, written and open application with the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce for investigations and a penalty against Qualcomm,” Chen told reporters at a news conference.
Qualcomm representatives in China could not immediately be reached for comment, and an e-mail to the firm’s US headquarters was not immediately answered.
The case is the latest headwind to beset the Californian giant in China.
Qualcomm said last month that it would pay 6.09 billion yuan and modify its business practices in China to end an official antitrust investigation.
That punitive levy was equivalent to 8 percent of Qualcomm’s 2013 sale revenue in the world’s No. 2 economy, Chinese authorities said.
Beijing has said the probe — which formally started in November 2013 — was triggered after unnamed industry players complained the firm was abusing its market dominance to charge high prices.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
RSS