The US International Trade Commission (ITC) said on Thursday that it has decided to launch an investigation into a patent infringement allegation against several Taiwanese companies and others.
In a statement, the commission said the investigation into certain non-volatile memory chips and products containing the chips is aimed at Taiwan’s Acer Inc (宏碁), Macronix International Co (旺宏), ASRock Inc (華擎), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), D-Link Corp (友訊) and Sercomm Corp (中磊).
Acer, Asustek and ASRock said yesterday the ITC investigation was unlikely to have any adverse impact on their operations, while declining to comment directly on the accusations.
Photo: Reuters/Pichi Chuang
Macronix said Spansion’s accusation was the latest in a series of legal battles between the two companies and described it as unfounded.
Macronix vowed to safeguard its legal rights and said it has been committed to research and development over the long term, and has always respected intellectual property rights held by others.
Other high-tech companies — such as Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp of the US, and Japan’s Nintendo Co — are also to be investigated, the US agency said.
The agency said that Spansion LLC, a California-based flash memory chip supplier, filed a complaint with it on April 29 that accused the companies of violating Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930.
According to the commission, the products under investigation are memory chips that can retain information in the absence of a power source, and consumer electronics devices containing such chips, such as computers, tablets, phones, digital cameras, routers, and video game console and cartridges.
Although the regulator decided to launch the investigation, the trade agency stressed that it had not yet made any decision on the merits of the case.
In August last year, Spansion filed a similar complaint with the commission, accusing Acer and firms in Japan and the US of infringing on its flash memorychip technology.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS