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.
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco), the Saudi state-owned oil giant, yesterday posted first-quarter profits of US$26 billion, down 4.6 percent from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar development plans. Aramco had revenues of US$108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw US$107.2 billion in revenues and profits of US$27.2 billion for the same period last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest US$600 billion in the US over the course of US President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump, who is set to touch
SKEPTICAL: An economist said it is possible US and Chinese officials would walk away from the meeting saying talks were productive, without reducing tariffs at all US President Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks yesterday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. In a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.” The second day of closed-door meetings between US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were due to restart yesterday morning, said a person familiar
RSS