Taiwan Firm To Seek 100 Million Dollars In Damages From Apple  

A Taiwan consumer electronics company said Friday that it intends to seek 100 million US dollars in damages from Apple Computer Inc after winning a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by Apple over its MP3 digital-music players.

"We are a small fry battling a giant whale," Luxpro Technology said in a statement. "To safeguard our rights and dignity and to seek market fairness, we want to sue Apple for 100 million US dollars in damages."

Luxpro decided on the suit after Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission ruled that Luxpro has not copied Apple's design in launching three MP3 players, the statement said.

The legal dispute began in July 2005 when Apple filed a lawsuit in Taipei's Shihlin District Court, accusing Luxpro of copying Apple's iPod Shuffle in making its Super Tangent, Top Tangent and Ez Tangent.

Apple claimed that the three MP3 players' case and round control buttons were similar to those of Apple's iPod.

Apple sought and was granted an injunction to bar Luxpro from making and advertising the three MP3 players and to withdraw them from store shelves.

Luxpro appealed the ruling to the Taiwan High Court and won the case in November 2005. An Apple appeal ended in March last year with the Taiwan Supreme Court upholding the high court's ruling.

Meanwhile, Apple also filed a copyright-infringement complaint against Luxpro to the Taiwan government's Fair Trade Commission, which ruled in favour of Luxpro in October.

"Apple's barring us from producing the MPs players and its ordering the removal of our MP3 players from shelves has hurt our global sales," the statement quoted Luxpro chairman Wu Fu-ching as saying. "We want to seek damages from such a transnational company to show that Taiwan's strength in electronics technology should not be suppressed."