User:Hopeimrich/Largan Precision

Largan Precision Company Limited 大立光電股份有限公司

Founded	1987
Founder	Tony Chen and Scott Lin
Revenue	US$2.01 billion (2020)
Net income	US$881 thousand (2020)
Website	http://www.largan.com.tw/html/about/about_en.php

Largan Precision Company Limited or Largan Precision (Chinese: 大立光電股份有限公司) is a Taiwanese company with its headquarters in Xitun District, Taichung City. The company manufactures optical lens modules and optoelectronic components, which are mainly used in scanners, cameras, digital cameras, multi function product, LCD projectors, phone lenses, rear projection TVs, and optical mice.

Largan Precision, world's biggest supplier of smartphone camera lenses, takes up 30 percent of the market share across the globe. sIt's one of the "nation's biggest supplier" for Iphone's camera lenses along with Foxconn Interconnect Technology and Guangyao Technology.

History

Scott Lin, one of the co-founder, took the suggestion of his friend Jong Huang, a Premier Technology Chairman, to try to shift the production focus to a lighter and thinner lenses instead of glass lenses, which are comparatively heavier and thicker.

In 2001, the company was certified as a compliant of ISO 9001. It was merged with Largan Optronic Co., Ltd to ensure growth and company's competitiveness. A year later, Largan Precision went public on Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE). They developed projector zoom lens, VGA lens used in mobile phones and 3.0 Megapixels 3x zoom digital camera lens. At that time, the company was ranked #2 by profit rate, #92 by net profit after tax and #141 by revenue growth rate.

Largan Precision, in 2016, set its headquarters in the Taichung City Precision Machinery Innovation Technology Park. They purchased nearby industrial lands and planned to centralize the production line in the factory area.

Legal Dispute

In 2013, Largan Precision sued Ability Opto-Electronic Technology Co (Chinese: 先進光電) for stealing its trade secret. Claimed that four engineers, originally in Largan Precision, started filing patents that infringed on its intellectual property. After more than 8 years of litigation, on Januarly 28, 2021, the Intellectual Property Court upheld its first instance judgement, ordering Ability to pay NT$1.52 billion(US$53.72 million) in compensation. This set a record of the highest amount of compensation in the history of Taiwan's intellectual property lawsuits. Right after two companies reached an out-of-court settlement, Largan bought 20 million shares of Ability Optoelectronics Technology Co, giving Largan Precision a 15.2 percent of its stock rights.

Over the years, Largan had also sued Newmax Technology Co (Chinese: 新鉅科), Samsung Electronics Co, and HP Inc for infringing on four of the companies patents and used it in the production of notebook camera lenses. It is the first time Largan litigate in order to protect its intellectual property rights for lenses used in notebooks.