Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's third-largest personal computer maker, sued rival Clevo Computer Co, claiming the Taiwanese company infringed two patents for PC functions and owed millions of dollars in licensing royalties.

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The lawsuit was filed on March 2 in federal court in New York. Lenovo, which bought IBM's PC business in 2005, claims Clevo isn't making payments under a 1999 agreement with IBM. As part of the acquisition, IBM granted Lenovo the right to collect licensing fees under Clevo's contract.

Lenovo joins LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics in filing suits against Taiwanese computer makers for patent infringement. South Korea's LG in July won a suit against Taiwan's Quanta Computer and Compal Electronics.

Taipei-based Compal, the second-largest notebook maker after Quanta, is embroiled in a dispute with Samsung over software used for the output of data from notebook keyboards.

Taiwanese companies make about four out of five notebooks shipped by customers, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Apple Computer, according to researcher DisplaySearch.

Clevo, which owns the Buynow retail outlet chain selling PCs and electronics, was scheduled to pay $3 million on August 31, 2006 and another $3 million by August 31 this year.

But the Taipei-based company has failed to pay "despite repeated demands for payment from IBM and Lenovo and despite repeated assurances of payment", Lenovo said in the complaint.

Geraldine Kan, Lenovo's Singapore-based spokeswoman, declined to comment on the litigation. So did Michelle Wu, Clevo's financial director.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 03/08/2007 page14)