Acer Inc. has filed a patent counterclaim against rival Hewlett-Packard Co. as part of its response to two HP lawsuits.
The lawsuits come amid a major push by Acer into the U.S. PC market, and brisk global growth. The Taiwanese company’s shipments to the U.S., HP’s home turf, grew 163.8 per cent year-on-year in the most recent second quarter, according to preliminary figures by market researcher IDC. HP has also been gaining market share in PCs at the expense of other rivals such as Dell Inc., but Acer remains the fastest-growing PC maker among the top 10.
The counterclaim filed last week by Acer alleges HP has infringed its antenna and DVD-ROM head technology patents. The suit was filed in the same court as the HP lawsuits against Acer, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
The HP lawsuits claim that Acer has infringed 10 HP patents related to PCs. The world’s largest PC vendor is seeking to block Acer PC imports to the U.S. and is asking for compensation from Acer, payment of legal fees, and triple damages for alleged intentional violation of the patents.
Court documents in the Acer counterclaim were not yet available at the time of writing.