Camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) has lodged a patent infringement complaint in the US against Taiwanese companies Ability Opto-Electronics Technology Co (先進光電) and Newmax Technology Co (新鉅科), and US notebook computer vendor HP Inc.
It marked the first time Largan has filed suit to protect its intellectual property rights for lenses used in notebook computers, although about 90 percent of its revenue is derived from lenses used in smartphones.
The Taichung-based company filed the complaint with the US Eastern District Court of Texas on Wednesday last week, accusing the three companies of infringing on four of its patents, according to information posted on the district court’s Web site.
No details about the complaint were available on the Web site. However, a report by the Chinese-language Economic Daily News said that Largan is accusing Ability and Newmax of illegally using its patents to manufacture camera lenses for notebooks, with 15 HP laptop models equipped with the problematic lenses.
“Largan has claimed that Ability illegally used four of its patents in the production of camera lenses,” Ability said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. “The company has never intended to infringe on patents owned by other companies. We will seek a legal approach to safeguard the interests of the company and our clients.”
Ability said in the filing that it owns 235 patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
This is the second lawsuit Largan has filed against Ability.
In 2013, it sued Ability for theft of trade secrets in Taipei.
A preliminary ruling in 2017 by the Intellectual Property Court ruled in favor of Largan and ordered Ability to pay NT$1.52 billion (US$48.9 million at the current exchange rate) in compensation.
Ability has filed an appeal.
Newmax also denied any wrongdoing, it said in a separate exchange filing on Tuesday night.
Ability and Newmax yesterday saw their shares tumble 1.41 percent and 4.23 percent to NT$48.80 and NT$102 respectively in Taipei trading, after the patent litigation was disclosed.
Largan shares edged lower 0.11 percent to close at NT$4,530.
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of