Just when Acer was cranking up market share in the USA at the expense of HP and Dell, Hewlett-Packard has decided to sue, clainming patent infringement of five of HP’s patents.
Hewlett-Packard has sued Acer over patent infringement, saying the Taiwanese PC maker had infringed on five of HP’s patents in the United States. The suit reflects HP’s increasing concerns over Acer’s share gains in the worldwide PC market.
HP filed a complaint this week against Acer and its U.S. subsidiary in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall, Texas. HP accused the Taipei-based company of violating patents issued between 1997 and 2003 in the areas of optical drive editing, clock frequency switching, utilization-based power management of a clocked device, attaching devices to a digital serial bus, and multiple-chip processing.
While HP has sailed past rival PC maker Dell in recent months in terms of market share, Acer has been making steady gains (see HP Extends Lead over Dell). Acer grew its share of the market 37.9 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to research firm IDC. Another research firm, Gartner, charted a gain for Acer of 33.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005 to Q4 of 2006.
In other news Acer reported that its 2006 net profit rose 20.5 percent to US$309.1 million from US$256.5 million in 2005. Acer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, HP said in a statement that it considered the suit a necessity.
“This action was necessary because HP believes Acer has been selling computer products that use HP’s patented technologies without permission,” said a statement forwarded by HP spokesperson Christina Schneider. “HP has made a significant investment in research and development for our personal computer products,” HP added. “HP holds more than 6,000 patents related to PC technology, including important features such as power consumption and efficiency, DVD editing, and processing capabilities that improve computer efficiency and enhance the user’s computer experience. These innovations help to differentiate HP’s PC products from our competitors.”
