British pop star Dua Lipa has filed a lawsuit against ‌Samsung Electronics seeking at least $15m (£11m) in damages. 

The 30-year-old has accused the tech giant of using her image without permission to market its TV sets.

The lawsuit alleges that Samsung featured a copyrighted ​image of the pop artist on the front of cardboard boxes containing ​televisions for retail sale.

This enabled the company to benefit from what seemed ⁠like her endorsement of the product, the lawsuit alleges.

The image alleged to have been used ​on the TV boxes is titled Dua Lipa – Backstage at Austin City Limits, 2024, and Lipa is the owner of all rights, title and interest in the image, according to the lawsuit.

The suit was filed on Friday in the California federal court.

She has also accused Samsung Electronics of breaching publicity rights.

Her lawyers have attached screenshots of social media postings and comments in the filing, claiming the singer’s image on the front of the boxes drove potential customers to buy the ​product.

One of ​the screenshots shows ⁠a fan saying they would get the TV “just because Dua is on it”.

The Grammy-winning artist became aware of Samsung’s alleged ​infringement in June last year and demanded the tech company stop using ​her ⁠image, but it repeatedly refused to do so, her lawyers said.

Samsung’s alleged unauthorised use of Lipa’s image has “caused and continues to cause dilution” of her “brand identity ⁠and ​commercial goodwill by falsely conveying to the consuming ​public that she approves of and endorses” the products in question, they said.

A spokesperson for Samsung Electronics declined ​to comment to Reuters, saying it was unable to comment on pending litigation, while ​Lipa’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case. (Sky News)

The post Dua Lipa suing Samsung for $15m for ‘using her image without permission’ appeared first on Newswire.

Apple said on Wednesday that Samsung Electronics will supply chips from its production plant in Austin, Texas, for Apple products, including iPhones.

“This facility will supply chips that optimise power and performance of Apple products, including iPhone devices,” Apple said in a statement.

A Samsung spokesperson declined to comment.

The statement was made as part of Apple’s announcement that it would spend an additional $100 billion in U.S. investments, bringing its total investment commitment to the country to $600 billion over the next four years.

“What’s significant is that Samsung is taking over some of the image sensor volumes that Apple previously sourced from Sony,” said Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities.

“Since Sony only makes image sensors in Japan, Apple appears to be diversifying its suppliers and localising production in the United States.”

Ryu said that while Sony still dominates the high-end image sensor market, Apple’s move reduces its reliance on a single vendor and supports its push for more U.S.-based sourcing.

Tesla recently signed a $16.5 billion deal to source chips from Samsung, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk saying in late July that Samsung’s new chip factory in Texas would make Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip.

Samsung’s chip contract manufacturing business is expected to reduce losses by securing new orders in 2026 to make image sensor chips for iPhone 18s and chips for Tesla, Pak Yuak, analyst at Kiwoom Securities, wrote in a note late last month. (Reuters)

The post Apple says Samsung will supply chips from Texas factory appeared first on Newswire.

Samsung has announced its earnings estimates for Q1 2023. The company expects its operating profit to nosedive by 96% compared to Q1 2022 as the demand for semiconductor chips has waned in the past few months. Moreover, consumers have been buying fewer home appliances as there is a fear of a global economic recession.

The South Korean tech giant estimates its operating profit for Q1 2023 to be around KRW 600 billion (around $454.9 million), which is a huge drop compared to KRW 14.12 trillion (around $10.7 billion) that it achieved in Q1 2022. Samsung’s revenue also fell to KRW 63 trillion (around $47.77 billion), a 19% drop compared to KRW 77.78 trillion (around $58.99). The company hasn’t revealed its net profit yet, and its final earnings figures will be announced later this month.

Over the past few years, Samsung’s Device Solutions business (overseen by the Samsung Semiconductor division), which makes semiconductor chips, has been its most profitable arm. However, during Q1 2023, it saw losses of around KRW 4 trillion (around $3.03 billion). This is the semiconductor division’s first loss in the past 14 years. This is due to a sharp drop in demand for semiconductor chips like SSD and DRAM.

Global firms have significantly reduced spending money for buying semiconductor chips for their servers and cloud infrastructure. However, Samsung continued to manufacture chips, which led to a surplus inventory over the past few months. And it isn’t just Samsung affected by the fall in chip demand. Rivals Micron and SK Hynix also reported heavy losses.

The last time Samsung’s semiconductor business saw such a loss was in Q1 2009, when the world was recovering from the 2008 financial crisis. The South Korean firm said today in its regulatory filing that it is adjusting the output of semiconductor chips to a “meaningful level” to resolve unsold inventory and stop the falling prices of memory chips. The company expects the global chip market to drop 6% to $563 billion and expects tough times to continue for the rest of the year.

Samsung has lately seen lowering smartphone sales and profits. However, during Q1 2023, the company’s smartphones did really well and came to the company’s rescue, stopping it from reporting an overall operating loss. Samsung MX (Mobile Experience), the company’s smartphone division, reportedly earned profits of around KRW 3.3 trillion (around $2.5 billion). This helped Samsung offset its losses from the semiconductor chip division.

The Galaxy S23 series sold really well worldwide. In all the important markets worldwide, including Europe, India, Korea, and North America, the Galaxy S23 series outsold the Galaxy S22 by at least 1.4 times. This is even better when you consider that the global smartphone market has dropped significantly over the past couple of quarters, and all the Chinese firms reported a sharp drop in their sales compared to last year. This shows how strong Samsung’s smartphone division’s fundamentals are.

Samsung Display, the company’s arm that manufactures display panels for TVs and mobile devices, reportedly had a profit of around KRW 800 billion (around $606 million). This could be due to strong sales of mobile OLED panels to Apple and Samsung MX. (Sammobile)

The post Samsung reports lowest profit in 14 years as chip demand wanes, but there’s good news appeared first on Newswire.