Automotive lighting maker Depo Auto Parts Industry Co (帝寶工業) assured its institutional investors yesterday that the firm’s designs would “avoid the infringement of patents.”
It issued the assurance at a conference held by Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) in Taipei.
Depo has since last year been in a legal dispute with German automaker Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz AG, which claims that Depo’s after-market vehicle lights infringe upon one of its design patents.
In a first ruling in August last year, the Intellectual Property Court decided in favor of Daimler.
Quoting investors who attended the conference, CNA reported that Depo said that it expects a second decision in the case in the first quarter of next year.
The investors referred to the passage of a “repair clause” in German law, which might help decide the case in Depo’s favor.
Meyer-Dulheuer MD Legal Patentanwalte, a German law firm, said on its Web site that the clause, passed last month, excludes spare parts from design protection.
Depo in July pledged to invest NT$2.1 billion (US$73.58 million) to expand the capacity of its Changhua Coastal Industrial Park (彰濱工業區) facilities. It is also building a new molding research and development plant in Tainan’s Sinying Industrial Park (新營工業區) to expand its high-end product range and improve production automation.
Depo’s Taiwan capacity could reach 40 million pieces a year, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s Web site.
Depo said that it has steadily received orders and has adequate capacity, but it is facing a bottleneck in shipping to US and European customers due to a lack of cargo container space, the CNA report said.
The company plans to increase the percentage of original equipment products in its lineup, mostly manufactured in China, the report said, adding that about 20 percent of Depo equipment is original while 80 percent is for after-market sales.
Depo posted a net profit of NT$370.38 million in the first three quarters, down 37 percent from NT$586.07 million in the same period last year, a exchange filing showed.
Revenue for the first three quarters of this year dropped 9.6 percent year-on-year to NT$10.37 billion, from NT$11.55 billion, the filing showed.
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