Amid rising patent disputes in the technology sector, AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) and Samsung Electronics Co announced an agreement yesterday to cross-license their LCD patent portfolios.
AUO, the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, and Samsung, the world’s largest LCD panel maker, also agreed to withdraw all pending legal actions against each other, the Taiwanese company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
In May 2010, AUO won a patent lawsuit against LG Display Co in the US.
The latest legal settlement came a day after Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆電子), a Taiwanese manufacturer of chips and touch screens, reached an agreement with Apple Inc to stop all patent-infringement litigation against each other and to cross-license patents related to multi-point touch panel technology.
AUO said that its deal with the South Korean company showed their respect for each other’s massive research investment in advanced display technology.
“Through the cross-licensing of our respective patent portfolios, AUO and Samsung can develop more advanced thin-film-transistor (TFT)-LCD display technologies,” the Hsinchu-based company said in the filing.
Samsung accused AUO and its customers, such as Acer Inc (宏碁), BenQ Corp (明基) and Sanyo Electric Co (三洋電機), of infringing on a number of its display patents.
The South Korean company in June last year filed a complaint against AUO with the US International Trade Commission and also started legal proceedings against AUO in US federal courts in Delaware and California.
In response, AUO immediately sued Samsung and its customers, including AT&T Inc and Best Buy Co, later that month in the federal courts in Delaware and Califonia for allegedly infringing some of its LCD panel patents. The Taiwanese company also filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission against Samsung.
The two companies’ settlement yesterday would likely help them to fend off increased legal attacks by rivals in the flat-display industry.
However, they did not disclose financial terms of the deal or specifics regarding their intellectual property portfolios.
AUO shares fell 1.90 percent to NT$12.9 in Taipei trading yesterday before the company’s announcement of the litigation settlement, while the benchmark TAIEX dropped 0.15 percent, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based
RSS