ASUS and its subsidiary Asus Global have been found to infringe upon patents held by ACQIS, a technology patent licensing firm, concerning critical components used in a variety of computing products. Following the verdict delivered by a federal jury in the Western District of Texas, ASUS is now mandated to compensate ACQIS with a licensing fee totaling US$18 million (approximately NT$574 million).
The jury’s decision came after evaluating U.S. Patent Nos. 9529768 and 8756359, related to CPU, memory, and data security technologies. Despite ASUS’s contention that the patents lacked adequate written descriptions to be comprehensible for replication, the jury upheld their validity. It was, however, determined that ASUS’s infringement was not deliberate.
This legal battle, initiated by ACQIS in October 2020, centered on allegations that ASUS’s product lines, including the ZenBook, Chromebook, and ROG computers, utilized technology methods patented by ACQIS without authorization. ACQIS’s attorney, Kollard of Dorsey & Whitney, expressed gratitude towards the jury for recognizing the infringement of the company’s patents and underscored the demand for ASUS to fulfill its license fee obligations.
The verdict emphasizes the importance of intellectual property rights and the repercussions of their infringement within the tech industry. While ASUS did not intentionally infringe the patents according to the jury’s findings, the case highlights the complex landscape of patent law and the need for companies to navigate it carefully to avoid costly legal disputes.
