Microsoft Corp avoided a potentially costly setback to its mobile phone business on Friday as the US International Trade Commission (ITC) declined to block the import of its devices in a long-standing patent dispute.
The decision rejected a ruling in April by a US trade judge who found that Microsoft had infringed two InterDigital Inc wireless patents and recommended an import ban.
The commission’s action is good news for Microsoft, which has been struggling to compete with Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd devices. The Redmond, Washington-based firm has captured just 3 percent of the smartphone market in the US and globally, according to recent estimates.
Microsoft last month posted a record quarterly loss as it took a US$7.5 billion charge on its handset business, which it bought from Nokia Oyj last year.
Wilmington, Delaware-based InterDigital first accused Nokia in 2007 of infringing its technology for optimizing a cellphone’s power to connect to a network.
In April, the US trade judge ruled that Microsoft used InterDigital’s patents, considered standard in the industry, but refused to pay for a license to them. An import ban would have affected any Microsoft phone using 3G cellular technology, including its Lumia smartphones.
After reviewing that ruling, the commission on Friday said that Microsoft did not violate the patents, but it did not address the issue of fair licensing for essential patents.
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
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
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
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