■ IPR protection
Gillette sues Energizer
Gillette Co, the world's largest razor maker, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Energizer Holdings Inc alleging its new Schick Quattro razor violates Gillette's Mach3 patent. Gillette charges that Energizer used the prop-rietary blade technology of its Mach3 razor, the Boston-based company said in a statement. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Boston, asked for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, monetary damages and other relief. The progressive blade geometry used in Mach3 positions the blades to extend gradually closer to the beard, allowing for the closest, most comfortable shave in a single stroke, said Gillette, which gets more than a third of sales and more than half its profit from razors and blades. Energizer's four-blade Quattro will be in stores next month.
■ Macroeconomics
Prices rise in China
China's consumer prices rose 0.5 percent last month compared with the same month a year ago as services and energy became more expensive, the government said yesterday. Services were 2.5 percent more expensive last month than one year earlier, while prices of consumer products were down 0.1 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a release. It marks the seventh consecutive rise in Chinese consumer prices, suggesting that Asia's second largest economy could be escaping from a vicious spiral of falling prices affecting it since the late 1990s. It appeared, however, that some of July's increase in prices was caused by one-off factors or global trends outside the Chinese policy-makers' control.
■ Publishing
`Penthouse' goes bankrupt
General Media Inc, the publisher of Penthouse magazine, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection so it can restructure debt and operations. General Media is the lead debtor on US$39.9 million in outstanding senior secured notes. That debt totaled US$85 million two years ago when it was restructured. In its bankruptcy petition, filed with US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, General Media said it had between US$50 million and US$100 million in both assets and debts. The document wasn't more specific. General Media is 99.5 percent owned by Penthouse International Inc, which didn't file for bankruptcy. Among its obvious troubles, the publishing schedule of its flagship Penthouse magazine has fallen behind. The August issue will hit newsstands Aug. 19, but industry practice is for a particular month's issue to be published before the month listed on the cover.
■ Agriculture
Japan pushes rice-plastics
Japan's agriculture ministry is considering subsidizing projects to use old surplus rice to produce plastics that dissolve into water and carbon dioxide in the soil, an official said yesterday. The ministry official said the idea was not a formal decision yet due to "budgetary and other issues to clarify." The Asahi Shimbun reported the ministry would ask for a total of ?6 billion (US$50 million) over the three years from next April under the state budget for the project to promote the green plastics. Japan's demand for plastics is roughly 14 million tonnes a year, but only about 20,000 tonnes of the total is for bio-degradable types.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
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