Tuesday, December 17th 2013

VIA Sues ASUS Group Companies and Executives for Damages

Following the decision by the Taiwan Prosecutor to pursue criminal proceedings against a subsidiary of Asustek Computer, Inc. (TSE: 2357) and four of that subsidiary's employees for the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets from VIA Technologies, Inc. (TSE: 2388), 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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7 Comments on VIA Sues ASUS Group Companies and Executives for Damages

#1
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
If via wins this case and asmedia gets killed in this- via needs to continue driver support for those products-asrock boards have them- they work very well ill say.
Posted on Reply
#2
Jorge
Asus has appeared to me to be very sketchy in recent years. This may just be the beginning of some very protracted litigation from a variety of sources which could cost them plenty.
Posted on Reply
#3
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
i honestly dont trust Asus in any product line- had way too many problems with them, its AsRock, MSI for me, had 1 experience with a GA board that was irritating due to a bad ram module being the culprit despite memtest86 not showing anything
Posted on Reply
#4
natr0n
I hope VIA wins.
Posted on Reply
#5
Dave65
ASUS needs to be taken down a peg or two!
Posted on Reply
#7
Baum
To be honest via wasn't all that bad their products where nice years ago...

without them we wouldn't be here with itx boards, the via nano and via itx boards where the ones who paved the road for that standard
(without them no powersupply and cases as an example and no one jumped on that bandwagon)


If any thing of this is true, changing company and taking emploees and knowledge with them....


BOOO Asus BOOO get your hand out of the cookie jar, just why didn't you pay via in the first place?
Together an nice Asus EEPC would have been possible, their dualcore (vias) asshanded the intel atom in style!

how and why do you buy and be the main shareholder of an company that is just your supplyer?
Just to steal tech, not to pay to the "right" but wrong people in the first place?
And treat people from your supplier badly... oh man asus just boo!
Posted on Reply
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