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Guru3D.com » News » VIA files civil suit against ASUS Group Companies - seeking Damages

VIA files civil suit against ASUS Group Companies - seeking Damages

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 12/17/2013 06:13 PM | source: | 12 comment(s)
VIA files civil suit against ASUS Group Companies - seeking Damages

VIA today announced that it has filed a civil suit in the Taipei District Court seeking damages of at least NT$4.137 billion (US$138 million) from Asustek Computer, Inc and its subsidiary Asmedia Technology. The lawsuit is being filed to recover the losses incurred as a result of the alleged misappropriation of VIA intellectual property related to USB technology. Also named in the suit are Asmedia Chairman Jerry Shen, Asmedia President Lin Chewei, and other Asmedia employees involved in the case.

"As a long-time leader in IC design and technology innovation, VIA strongly believes in the importance of protecting intellectual property rights," commented Wenchi Chen, CEO of VIA Technologies, Inc. "In addition to protecting interests of VIA and our shareholders, the aim of this suit is to ensure our industry operates in a healthy market environment that fosters innovation and promotes fair competition."

On 8 November 2013, the Taiwan Prosecutor decided to pursue criminal proceedings against Asmedia and four employees, including Chang Chi, VP of R&D, after the conclusion of its investigation into the alleged misappropriation of VIA's trade secrets, as well as violation of Copyright Act. In addition to seeking damages, VIA is also requesting the court to instruct Asmedia to cease the production and sales of the allegedly infringing products.

Taiwan amended its Trade Secret Act earlier this year to enhance its IP protection laws. One key reform included increasing the penalties for intellectual property crimes, so anyone who misappropriates trade secrets in Taiwan with the intent to use them overseas may be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined up to US$1.7 million, or possibly more if there are substantial illicit gains.

The lawsuit alleges that a former VIA executive, Chewei Lin, left VIA in 2007 and joined Asmedia (controlled by Asus Group), taking dozens of VIA employees with him, and also VIA's intellectual property related to USB technology, including host controllers and device controllers. Those products are used in many computing and consumer electronics products, including PCs, external Hard Disk Drives, and peripheral devices. Asustek Computer, Inc. is the largest single purchaser of Asmedia USB products.

Prior to that, Asmedia had no expertise in the USB field, according to the lawsuit. Given the complexity and legacy USB 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 IP required for the development of USB 3.0 chips, the Taiwan Prosecutor concluded in the criminal case filing that "it is extremely difficult to develop and take such chips into mass production in such a short time frame [of one year]."

According to the results of investigation carried out by the Taipei District Prosecutor, the evidence of trade secret theft is strong enough to justify the criminal prosecution of Asmedia and four Asmedia employees, including R&D VP Chang Chi.

The total Asus Group stake in Asmedia is 56.23%. Asustek Computer, Inc is Asmedia's single largest shareholder with a stake of 43.89% and two other subsidiaries hold the remainder. Asustek Computer, Inc is the largest single customer of Asmedia. Asmedia Chairman Jerry Shen is also the General Manager of the Asus motherboard business unit.







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« Reviewed: Most Delicious Graphics Card evah ! · VIA files civil suit against ASUS Group Companies - seeking Damages · Samsung Debuts GamePad for Android Phones »

Raider0001
Senior Member



Posts: 409
Joined: 2006-11-25

#4726559 Posted on: 12/17/2013 09:18 PM
Asus - please fix the damn wifi in my nexus 7

sykozis
Senior Member



Posts: 21100
Joined: 2008-07-14

#4726580 Posted on: 12/17/2013 09:37 PM
Can't compete with 'em....sue 'em....

lucidus
Senior Member



Posts: 11856
Joined: 2011-12-31

#4726589 Posted on: 12/17/2013 09:53 PM
VIA is still around? Is patent trolling their new primary business activity?

JulesCools
Senior Member



Posts: 282
Joined: 2013-04-29

#4726605 Posted on: 12/17/2013 10:06 PM
VIA - makers of the worst firewire chipset of all time

SHS
Senior Member



Posts: 438
Joined: 2001-05-02

#4726610 Posted on: 12/17/2013 10:13 PM
VIA - makers of the worst firewire chipset of all time

Nope that almost everything

ST19AG_WGreymon
Senior Member



Posts: 4703
Joined: 2004-01-22

#4726659 Posted on: 12/17/2013 11:27 PM
I haven't heard of VIA since my days of running an AMD Athlon 3400+ on a socket 754 motherboard.

NAMEk
Senior Member



Posts: 654
Joined: 2006-05-26

#4726733 Posted on: 12/18/2013 01:36 AM
s**t...

huilun02
Senior Member



Posts: 327
Joined: 2013-10-29

#4726788 Posted on: 12/18/2013 03:52 AM
A little Taiwanese drama

sykozis
Senior Member



Posts: 21100
Joined: 2008-07-14

#4726813 Posted on: 12/18/2013 05:41 AM
I haven't heard of VIA since my days of running an AMD Athlon 3400+ on a socket 754 motherboard.


VIA specializes in **** audio chips, embedded processors (for PoS and industrial systems), flaky USB and firewire controllers and apparently patent trolling.

HeavyHemi
Senior Member



Posts: 6337
Joined: 2008-10-27

#4726835 Posted on: 12/18/2013 06:37 AM
VIA specializes in **** audio chips, embedded processors (for PoS and industrial systems), flaky USB and firewire controllers and apparently patent trolling.


Apparently a criminal court disagrees and ASUS is going to be prosecuted for theft of intellectual property. From the article cited here:

"On 8 November 2013, the Taiwan Prosecutor decided to pursue criminal proceedings against Asmedia and four employees, including Chang Chi, VP of R&D, after the conclusion of its investigation into the alleged misappropriation of VIA's trade secrets, as well as violation of Copyright Act. In addition to seeking damages, VIA is also requesting the court to instruct Asmedia to cease the production and sales of the allegedly infringing products."

The civil suit appears to be in response to the criminal complaint filed by the prosecutor. Not all patent and intellectual property cases are patent trolling.

asturur
Senior Member



Posts: 433
Joined: 2010-05-12

#4727038 Posted on: 12/18/2013 03:28 PM
Asus owns taiwan , it will never loose any lawsuit there :)
Maybe i saw too much movies, but i think is more or less like that.

Leafblower
Senior Member



Posts: 1782
Joined: 2008-02-07

#4728418 Posted on: 12/20/2013 06:35 AM
Ironically enough my new machine has ASMedia USB and I ditched a few VIA components. It's almost like I saw it coming.

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