• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

VIA Sues ASUS Group Companies and Executives for Damages

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,277 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
40,435 (6.61/day)
Location
Republic of Texas (True Patriot)
System Name PCGOD
Processor AMD FX 8350@ 5.0GHz
Motherboard Asus TUF 990FX Sabertooth R2 2901 Bios
Cooling Scythe Ashura, 2×BitFenix 230mm Spectre Pro LED (Blue,Green), 2x BitFenix 140mm Spectre Pro LED
Memory 16 GB Gskill Ripjaws X 2133 (2400 OC, 10-10-12-20-20, 1T, 1.65V)
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon 290 Sapphire Vapor-X
Storage Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, WD Velociraptor 1TB
Display(s) NEC Multisync LCD 1700V (Display Port Adapter)
Case AeroCool Xpredator Evil Blue Edition
Audio Device(s) Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply Seasonic 1250 XM2 Series (XP3)
Mouse Roccat Kone XTD
Keyboard Roccat Ryos MK Pro
Software Windows 7 Pro 64
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.
 
Joined
Jan 5, 2013
Messages
895 (0.22/day)
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.
 

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
40,435 (6.61/day)
Location
Republic of Texas (True Patriot)
System Name PCGOD
Processor AMD FX 8350@ 5.0GHz
Motherboard Asus TUF 990FX Sabertooth R2 2901 Bios
Cooling Scythe Ashura, 2×BitFenix 230mm Spectre Pro LED (Blue,Green), 2x BitFenix 140mm Spectre Pro LED
Memory 16 GB Gskill Ripjaws X 2133 (2400 OC, 10-10-12-20-20, 1T, 1.65V)
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon 290 Sapphire Vapor-X
Storage Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, WD Velociraptor 1TB
Display(s) NEC Multisync LCD 1700V (Display Port Adapter)
Case AeroCool Xpredator Evil Blue Edition
Audio Device(s) Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply Seasonic 1250 XM2 Series (XP3)
Mouse Roccat Kone XTD
Keyboard Roccat Ryos MK Pro
Software Windows 7 Pro 64
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
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2012
Messages
6,402 (1.44/day)
Location
Florida
System Name natr0n-PC
Processor Ryzen 5950x/5600x
Motherboard B450 AORUS M
Cooling EK AIO - 6 fan action
Memory Patriot - Viper Steel DDR4 (B-Die)(4x8GB)
Video Card(s) EVGA 3070ti FTW
Storage Various
Display(s) PIXIO IPS 240Hz 1080P
Case Thermaltake Level 20 VT
Audio Device(s) LOXJIE D10 + Kinter Amp + 6 Bookshelf Speakers Sony+JVC+Sony
Power Supply Super Flower Leadex III ARGB 80+ Gold 650W
Software XP/7/8.1/10
Benchmark Scores http://valid.x86.fr/79kuh6
I hope VIA wins.
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2010
Messages
953 (0.19/day)
Location
Michigan
System Name Daves
Processor AMD Ryzen 3900x
Motherboard AsRock X570 Taichi
Cooling Enermax LIQMAX III 360
Memory 32 GiG Team Group B Die 3600
Video Card(s) Powercolor 5700 xt Red Devil
Storage Crucial MX 500 SSD and Intel P660 NVME 2TB for games
Display(s) Acer 144htz 27in. 2560x1440
Case Phanteks P600S
Audio Device(s) N/A
Power Supply Corsair RM 750
Mouse EVGA
Keyboard Corsair Strafe
Software Windows 10 Pro
ASUS needs to be taken down a peg or two!
 
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
Messages
270 (0.06/day)
Location
Canada
System Name custom
Processor intel i7 9700
Motherboard asrock taichi z370
Cooling EK-AIO 360 D-RGB
Memory 24G Kingston HyperX Fury 2666mhz
Video Card(s) GTX 2080 Ti FE
Storage SSD 960GB crucial + 2 Crucial 500go SSD + 2TO crucial M2
Display(s) BENQ XL2420T
Case Lian-li o11 dynamic der8auer Edition
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar Essence STX
Power Supply corsair ax1200i
Mouse MX518 legendary edition
Keyboard gigabyte Aivia Osmium
VR HMD PSVR2
Software windows 11
VIA: the "next" rambus company.:cool:
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
598 (0.09/day)
Location
Germany,Hannover
System Name ChaosMoes
Processor Intel® Core™ i5-3570K no OC yet
Motherboard Asrock Z77 Extreme4
Cooling Scythe Ninja 3 Rev. B
Memory 16GB 2xPatriot DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1866 Kit (PV38G186C9KRD, Viper 3 Venom Red)
Video Card(s) ASRock Radeon RX 590 Phantom Gaming X 8GB GDDR5 188€@13.07.19 Amazon Sale
Storage Samsung 840 Pro SSD 256GB, + ST32000645NS Seagate Constellation 109€ reichelt.de 2012
Display(s) 27" Phillips PHL 276E9Q 189€ @ Saturn(Germany) 1.09.2018
Case Zaria A20 !!!THANK YOU TECHPOWERUP.COM!!!
Audio Device(s) onboard Sound
Power Supply SeaSonic Prime Ultra Titanium 750W
Mouse Logitech M705
Keyboard Microsoft SideWinder X4 Keyboard
Software Windows 10 Pro x64
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!
 
Top