■ Copyrights
Starbucks to sue `imitator'
Coffee shop giant Starbucks is suing a Shanghai coffee shop for allegedly stealing its logo, a news report said yesterday. The US chain says it is taking its case to court after warning the Shanghai Xingbake Cafe for four years not to use Starbucks' distinctive circular green and black logo. Starbucks, which has 83 coffee shops in China, filed for trademark infringement after the coffee shop opened a second outlet in Shanghai using the same logo. However, the South China Morning Post reported that the coffee shop denied any infringement of Starbucks' trademark and insisted it would not change its name. The lawsuit is being handled by Starbucks' Hong Kong-based law firm Baker & Mackenzie and will be heard by the Second Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai, the newspaper said.
■ Beverages
Coca-cola denies fraud
The Coca-Cola Company Friday dismissed fresh accusations it inflated sales figures by shipping surplus beverage concentrate to domestic and overseas bottlers. The world's top soft drink maker was responding to a Wall Street Journal article quoting three former executives who said they witnessed a scam in which Coca-Cola sent the larger-than-needed quantities of concentrate to the bottlers. A Coca-Cola spokesman told reporters there was no basis for the accusations. In 2000, a group of Coca-Cola stockholders filed suit against the company accusing it of shipping a 600-million-dollar surplus of concentrate to bottlers in Japan, North America, Europe and South Africa.
■ Stocks
Jakarta probes irregularities
Indonesia is probing allegations that the local stock market's strong performance in recent months was driven by criminals laundering money through the exchange, a news report said yesterday. Yunus Husein, chairman of the Financial Transaction and Report Analysis Center, said his agency has launched a money laundering investigation in connection with the Jakarta Stock Exchange which reached all-time highs earlier this month. "We don't have any numbers yet but we did receive reports on the matter and an investigations is already under way," Husein said according to The Jakarta Post. Husein could not be reached for further comment. The stock market is up 8 percent this year, after rising 63 percent last year. The bourse was Southeast Asia's second leading performer last year behind Thailand.
■ Airlines
Ryanair loses court battle
Ryanair said Friday it would increase its ticket prices after a London court ruled in favor of a disabled man who sued the low-cost Irish carrier for charging him for a wheelchair. Bob Ross, 55, who suffers from cerebral palsy claimed the £18 (US$32) fee he was charged at Stansted airport near London in 2002 was discriminatory. The Central London County Court ruled in his favor and ordered Ryanair to pay £1,336, amounting to twice £18 for the outward and home journeys, £300 for a wheelchair subsequently bought by Ross and £1,000 for injury to his feelings. Disabled groups welcomed the ruling, but a Ryanair spokesman said it was "defective." The company would in future charge every passenger £0.50 to meet the cost of providing wheelchair assistance.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list