Hewlett-Packard (HP) has filed a lawsuit for a second time in a month against rival PC manufacturer, Acer, as the battle for global market share in the PC industry continues to heat up.

The second suit, filed Tuesday in the same federal court, seeks to stop Taipei-based Acer from selling some “desktops, notebooks, media centers and related products for home and business use” in the U.S., plus cash compensation. In addition, Hewlett-Packard also filed a complaint today with a U.S. trade agency to block imports of Acer computers.

“The filings were necessary because HP believes Acer has been importing into the United States and selling computer products that use HP’s patented technologies without permission. HP will continue to take action to protect its intellectual property against unauthorized use. HP respects the intellectual property rights of others, and we expect the same treatment in return,” a company statement said.

An Acer spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the lawsuit, but said the company may come out with a statement later in the day.

In particular, the patents involved in the new lawsuit are:

• Patent (6,691,236) which relates to conservation of power by altering the performance of the video graphics controller depending on the system’s power source or battery condition;
• Patent (6,029,119) that covers the management of multiple cooling options in a personal computer;
• Patent (5,535,415) which lead to increase computer efficiency by allowing concurrent bus operations to increase computer efficiency; and
• Patent (6,894,706) involves various methods and apparatuses for determining the resolution of graphics received from a computer and scaling it to match the fixed resolution of a display device.

JP Morgan analyst Alvin Kwock told PCmag and said, “HP may have taken the step to counter Acer’s growing threat on the global stage, with the lawsuit aimed at slowing down its momentum in North America, which now takes up 20 percent of its sales.”

Goldman Sachs analyst Henry King said, the lawsuit could pressure Acer’s already-slim profit margins there. “Acer has become a threat that leading PC vendors cannot afford to neglect,” he said in a research note. “We understand why competitors would desire a halt to Acer’s expansion in the U.S. market.”

Hewlett-Packard, the PC market leader, had a 19.1 percent share of the global personal-computer market in the first quarter. Dell settled for second, which had 15.2 percent share of the market. Acer tied for third place with China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. with 6.7 percent of the market, according to IDC.

Acer told Reuters on Tuesday it is aiming to overtake China’s Lenovo for the spot as the world’s third biggest PC seller by the end of this year.

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Entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 9:38 pm under Legal, Technology.

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