AUSTIN, TX – Freescale Semiconductor has filed multiple lawsuits against Panasonic, JVC and Funai Electric, alleging illegal use of its intellectual property.
In the suits, Freescale cites failures by the firms to renew license agreements, and seeks to bar their products from being imported into the US.
The suits were filed in US District Court in Austin and with the US International Trade Commission.
Products potentially impacted by the suits include TVs, memory cards, video cameras, digital cameras and media players, such as Blu-ray DVD players.
The trade commission lawsuit also names several retailers, including Best Buy, B&H Foto & Electronics, Wal-Mart, QVC and Buy.com.
NORTH BILLERICA, MA -- Reflow soldering equipment OEM BTU International reported fourth-quarter net sales fell 17.7% from a year ago to $12.1 million.
SMYRNA, GA – More than 2,500 PCB designers, fabricators and assemblers registered for Virtual PCB (virtual-pcb.com), the industry's only virtual trade show and conference, which is taking place this week.
TAIPEI – Last week’s earthquake in Chile, the largest producer of copper, could push electronics component prices higher as a result of a sustained surge in metal prices.
TEMPE, AZ – Manufacturing continued to grow in February, but the rate of growth decelerated, as the PMI registered 56.5%, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points sequentially, says the Institute for Supply Management.
A reading above 50% indicates the manufacturing economy is generally expanding.
New Orders registered 59.5%, down 6.4 percentage points. Production was 58.4%, down 7.8 points. Inventories contracted at a slower rate in February, as the index registered 47.3%, up 0.8 points. Customer Inventories grew 5 points to 37%, and Backlogs hit 61%, also up 5 points.
“The manufacturing sector grew for the seventh consecutive month during February. While New Orders and Production were not as strong as in January, they still show significant month-over-month growth,” said ISM spokesperson Norbert J. Ore in a press release.
The Employment Index was up 2.8 percentage points for the month to 56.1%, the third consecutive month of growth.
The overall economy grew for the 10th consecutive month, says ISM.
EVERYWHERE -- A series of moderated technical chats on everything from prototype design to tin whiskers highlight Virtual PCB, the online conference and trade show that kicks off today.
For the year, sales were 13.6 billion euros, down 3.9% year-over-year. The net loss for the year was 195 million euros, while the gross margin was 8%.
Operating profit (EBIT) rose 38.6% to 1.08 billion euros.Adjusted for one-time gains and charges of 284 million euros, operating profit fell 6.6% to 1.36 billion euros, on slower Adhesive Technologies sales.
During 2009, Henkel lowered its net debt 26.3% to 2.8 billion euros.
For the year, the Adhesive Technologies unit's sales fell 10.2% organically to 6.2 million euros. Adjusted operating profit was down 25.6% to 506 million euros percent lower due to considerable volume decreases and a resulting lower level of capacity utilization.The company said its electronics business was heavily affected by the semiconductor downturn.