Ritik Gupta
Shares in Apple Inc supplier Luxshare Precision Industry Co Ltd dropped as much as 9.5% on Monday, amidst the new troubles about a patent violation inquiry filed against it from the United States.
On Sunday, in a stock market filing, the company said it had been informed of two notices handed out by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) respecting a Section 337 investigation filed against it by U.S.-based Amphenol Corp, contending IP violation.
Luxshare said it had employed a team of lawyers to answer back and would “follow procedure” on the inquiry, without exaggerating, but re-iterated that the case “will not have a material impact” on its current undertakings and production.
Amphenol filed a section 337 grievance against Luxshare and its subsidiaries in December, contending that specific electric components imported into the United States from Luxshare violate Amphenol’s patents for connector cables.
Days later, Luxshare put out a statement saying it had discovered the complaint via USITC’s website and put in an internal working group to interrogate the claims.
Last year the company acquired two iPhone assembly plants from Taiwan-based Wistron Corp. That move startled some supervisors at Foxconn, the prominent producer of the handsets, and is discerned by critics to indicate more indigenous Chinese companies making deeper inroads into Apple’s supply convoy.
