Fingerprint sensor designer Egis Technology Inc (神盾) yesterday said that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit with Beijing’s Intellectual Property Court against Chinese rival Goodix Technology Inc (匯頂) in a renewed legal battle.
Egis in a statement said that Goodix has infringed on its property rights by using its patent in the manufacturing and sales of fingerprint products without Egis’ permission.
The company has requested the court to immediately stop Goodix’s practice and destroy all problematic products. It is also seeking 90 million yuan (US$13.24 million) in damages, the statement said.
Egis chief operating officer and chief technology officer Todd Lin (林功藝) confirmed the lawsuit, saying on the sidelines of an industry event in Taipei that Goodix has infringed upon Egis’ optical fingerprint patent and algorithm.
Egis said that it has allocated significant resources to develop new technology and products.
Based on its annual report, the company last year spent about 20 percent of its total revenue on research and development in a bid to offer competitive fingerprint sensors used in mobile devices and other electronics.
The company, which counts Samsung Electronics Co as its biggest client, has been expanding its presence in the Chinese market and has gained more Chinese customers, including supplying fingerprint sensors for Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) premium and 5G phones.
The lawsuit is the latest legal dispute between Egis and Goodix.
Shenzhen-based Goodix is a subsidiary of MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and the world’s largest fingerprint sensor supplier.
It filed a lawsuit with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court in July last year, alleging that Egis contravened intellectual property rights by using its patent to make optical fingerprint sensors that are incorporated under displays of mobile phones.
The court in February ruled that the patent was invalid and overruled Goodix’s complaint in March.
MediaTek, Taiwan’s biggest handset chip designer, has said that it plans to reduce its stake in Goodix from 9.29 percent to 7.29 percent between July 10 and Jan. 5 next year.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
Nvidia Corp’s major server production partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) reported 10.99 percent year-on-year growth in quarterly sales, signaling healthy demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Revenue totaled NT$2.06 trillion (US$67.72 billion) in the last quarter, in line with analysts’ projections, a company statement said. On a quarterly basis, revenue was up 14.47 percent. Hon Hai’s businesses cover four primary product segments: cloud and networking, smart consumer electronics, computing, and components and other products. Last quarter, “cloud and networking products delivered strong growth, components and other products demonstrated significant growth, while smart consumer electronics and computing products slightly declined,” compared with the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of