Japanese electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial Co said yesterday that it has filed a lawsuit against Taiwan's MediaTek Inc (聯發科技), the world's largest maker of chips for DVD players, claiming that its chips infringe on three of Matsushita's patents.
In the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Matsushita said it is seeking an undisclosed amount of compensation over MediaTek's alleged unauthorized use of three patents for integrated-circuit chips for use in DVD devices.
Matsushita, one of the world's largest consumer-electronics makers, took the legal action after the two companies' licensing talks failed, the Japanese company said in a statement.
The statement didn't specify when the negotiations were undertaken.
"MediaTek is known as one of the top manufacturers of integrated-circuit chips used for DVDs and CDs, but its unlicensed use of Matsushita's patented technologies could be contributing to MediaTek's price competitiveness," Matsushita spokesman Akira Kuroda said.
"Matsushita has spent an enormous amount of money in research and development for these patents, and licensing fees for them are justified compensation for us," he said.
The Osaka-based maker of Panasonic audio-visual goods is also demanding a court order to suspend US sales of the MediaTek chips in question and DVD devices that use the chips, Matsushita said.
The suit also names OPPO Digital Inc, a California-based digital electronics maker, and another Taiwanese company, Micro-Star International Co (
MediaTek said in a statement released yesterday that it could not comment on the issue at the moment.
"So far, our understanding of the issue has only come from media coverage ? we will make a public comment on it after we receive any official documents from the court," the statement said.
A public relations official at Micro-Star also said yesterday that the company would not comment on the case before receiving related papers.
Shares of MediaTek were up NT$24 to close at NT$373 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, and shares of Micro-Star International Co gained NT$0.25 to close at NT$25.10.
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
China has threatened severe economic retaliation against Japan if Tokyo further restricts sales and servicing of chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms, complicating US-led efforts to cut the world’s second-largest economy off from advanced technology. Senior Chinese officials have repeatedly outlined that position in recent meetings with their Japanese counterparts, people familiar with the matter said. Toyota Motor Corp privately told officials in Tokyo that one specific fear in Japan is that Beijing could react to new semiconductor controls by cutting the country’s access to critical minerals essential for automotive production, the people said, declining to be named discussing private affairs. Toyota is among
RSS