Sony Corp’s patent-infringement claims against TPV Technology Ltd (冠捷) and Innolux Display Corp (群創光電) will be investigated by a US trade agency that may bar imports of the two companies’ computer monitors if a violation is found.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington said on Thursday it would consider Sony’s claims that digital TVs and monitors made in China are infringing 10 Sony patents. The complaint also names ViewSonic Corp, based in Walnut, California, which sells the electronics.
TPV and Innolux “have never taken a license to the asserted patents from Sony,” the Tokyo-based company said in the complaint. “Their products are not covered by any license under the Sony patents.”
TPV, based in Hong Kong, is the world’s largest contract maker of computer monitors and reported US$2.5 billion in North American revenue in 2008, court filings show. The TPV products targeted by Sony’s complaint are sold under the Envision, AOC, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc, Acer (宏碁), Lenovo (聯想), Asus (華碩) and ViewSonic names.
Innolux merged with Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) last month to become Chimei Innolux Corp, Taiwan’s biggest LCD panel maker. The Innolux monitors are sold under the Dell, HP, Acer, ViewSonic and Lenovo names. None of the computer makers, including HP or Dell, were named in the ITC complaint.
Sony filed a patent suit against ViewSonic and TPV last year in US federal court over the same patents. In a Feb. 22 filing in the case, TPV denied infringing the patents and said they are invalid. ViewSonic made similar claims.
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Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
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