Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has achieved the impressive success of becoming Asia's second-biggest smartphone maker and the No. 4 supplier in the global market following accelerated expansion in the past four years. But the Taipei-based enterprise's entanglement in lawsuits and countercharges involving Apple underscore the increasingly vital role of patent rights.
As one of the earliest smartphone producers to adopt Google's Android operating system, HTC has outshone international giants Nokia and Research In Motion. The strategy and rocketing sales of HTC smartphone made 2011 a glittering year for HTC chairwoman Cher Wang, catapulting her and her husband into the position of the richest couple in Taiwan. The couple also possesses major stakes in Via Technologies, an affiliate of HTC, and jointly own net assets amounting to US$6.8 billion as of March 2011 to dethrone Terry Gou, founder of the Hon Hai and Foxconn groups in wealth ranking, according to statistics released by Forbes magazine.
The market capital of HTC, which has traded on the Taiwan stock exchange for nine years, increased to US$33.79 billion to eclipse Nokia's market worth of US$32.84 billion for the first time after its stock price surged 5.3% to hit NT$1,200 (US$40.48) per share on April 6 of the same year.
But HTC's success has also drawn multiple patent infringement litigation, according to a report from the Southern Weekly based in Guangzhou. In a move to defend the market share of its iPhone, Apple filed a lawsuit against HTC in the state of Delaware plus a complaint to the International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington.
To boost its patent portfolio, HTC through VIA Technologies acquired S3 Graphics, which had won an initial determination at the ITC against Apple, and filed countercharges against the US company. But an ITC judge found in an initial ruling in July that HTC infringed on two Apple patents while the US company filed a second ITC complaint against HTC in the same month.
The lawsuits from Apple and a complaint from IPCom affected sales of HTC smartphones in Germany and sent the company's share prices lower on the stock market.
Wang, however, the daughter of industrialist and Formosa Plastics Group founder Wang Yung-ching, had no plans to throw in the towel. HTC filed a lawsuit in Delaware and with the ITC against Apple in mid-August. The company soon amended the suit and complaint by using nine new patents acquired from Google in early September.
It is difficult to predict how a possible new court verdict and ITC ruling might turn out, but most analysts do not think Wang will give up without a putting up a good fight. Wang went to the US to study by herself at the age of 15 and earned her master's degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981. She and her husband Wenchi Chen made their own fortune by establishing First International Computer and then VIA Technologies in 1987 and then HTC in 1997. It took many years and countless court hearings before VIA Technologies struck a settlement and patent-exchange deal with Intel.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had reportedly instructed his colleagues to step up the legal fight against Google to defend the market share of Apple products before he passed away last year. But with support from Google, Wang, 54, and her HTC team will now have new ammunition to fend off lawsuits. Analysts say HTC has played a major role to help lift the market share of Google's Android operating system to 52.5% for smartphones.
Google should take more action because helping HTC is like helping itself since the American company may eventually face Apple or other software giants in head-on legal clashes over patent rights, said analysts.
The intensified patent claims, lawsuits and demands for high royalty payments in the competitive hi-tech sector will serve as constant reminders for Wang and her staff to spend more time and investment in R&D projects for long-term development, said the analysts.
0 comments:
Post a Comment