The government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) denied yesterday that its patent lawsuit settlement with Samsung Electronics Co last year has negatively affected the interests of Taiwanese companies.
However, ITRI president Shyu Jyuo-min (徐爵民) refused to disclose the details of the settlement, citing confidentiality.
The ITRI’s denial came after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) yesterday accused the Hsinchu-based research institute of signing unfair agreements with Samsung to settle several patent lawsuits, citing a report by the Chinese-language Wealth Magazine (財訊).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The magazine reported that the settlement could affect patent rights that local companies, including flat panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), purchased from the institute.
In June and October of 2009, the ITRI filed a total of seven patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung and its US unit with a US court in Arkansas.
Citing the magazine report, Pan told a press conference yesterday that the ITRI settled the lawsuits with Samsung last year for less than NT$2 billion (US$70 million), while authorizing Samsung to use more than 100 of its patents.
However, under the settlement, the ITRI also signed an agreement with Samsung not to sue, agreeing not to pursue its patent claims against the South Korean firm in the fields of consumer electronics, flat-panel displays, -communications and semiconductors where the institute now owns patents or is applying for patents over the next six years, Pan said, citing the magazine report.
If the ITRI sells these patents to a third party, the third party should also not sue Samsung, according to the report.
Pan said the number of patents included in the covenant not to sue accounted for about two-thirds of the ITRI’s roughly 14,000 patents, worth more than NT$10 billion.
As these patents are valid for 20 years, the signing of the agreement not to sue would mean Taiwanese firms could not pursue patent claims against Samsung for the next 26 years, thus posing a huge threat to local electronics firms, Pan said.
Pan said he would ask the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the ITRI to submit a special report on the settlement to the legislature.
In response, Shyu said that the ITRI did not agree to sell patents involved in the settlement exclusively to Samsung when it reached the deal last year with the South Korean company, which is seen as a rival by local electronics companies. Nor did the ITRI ink any deal with Samsung on cross-licensing, he added.
In a statement, the ITRI described the accusation as “false” and said that it has continued to work closely with local companies in patent lawsuits and technology development.
The ITRI, which said it was considering taking legal action against Wealth Magazine, said the report has caused a “major impact” on the ITRI’s ongoing lawsuit against LG Electronics Inc of South Korea.
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控) yesterday launched its second testing facility in San Jose, California, to expand advanced chip testing capacity such as burn-in testing to satisfy customers’ rising engineering needs for emerging semiconductor applications, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). ISE Labs Inc, a fully owned subsidiary of ASE, would operate the advanced testing facility. When added to its first facility in nearby Fremont, ISE would double its available research-and-development lab and business space to 150,000m2 in hopes of boosting the US semiconductor supply chain, the company said in a statement. “As the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain reshoring
VALUE: TSMC’s market capitalization far exceeds the combined size of all the Latin American companies on MSCI Inc’s benchmark for emerging markets Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) US$420 billion equity rally this year would get a valuation test this week when it reports earnings, with analysts expecting the chipmaker to raise full-year sales forecasts. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker would probably report a 29 percent increase in second-quarter net income on Thursday, according to the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. More importantly, analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co to Morgan Stanley expect it to also raise its full-year sales guidance, justifying another round of valuation expansion. Just like Nvidia Corp, TSMC has become a favorite artificial intelligence (AI)-bet for investors with
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: The previous shooting targeting a US president or major party candidate was the 1981 incident targeting then-US president Ronald Reagan Saturday’s shooting at former US president Donald Trump’s election rally raises his odds of winning back the White House, and trades betting on his victory would increase this coming week, investors said yesterday. Trump was shot in the ear during the rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday in what the authorities were treating as an assassination attempt. Trump, his face spattered with blood, pumped his fist moments after the attack, and his campaign said he was fine after the incident. Before the shooting, markets had reacted to the prospect of a Trump presidency by pushing the US dollar higher and positioning for a
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday thanked memory chipmaker Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra for his trust and continued investment in Taiwan, in a rare public meeting with a senior foreign tech executive. It is very unusual for Taiwan’s president to have publicized meetings with senior foreign tech executives, despite the nation being home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), whose chips help to power the surge in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Lai thanked Mehrotra for “showing trust and support for Taiwan” in a video released by the Presidential Office. “I want to thank Micron for its long-term