Taiwanese Firm Says It Authorized Its Trademark on Pagers in Anti-Hezbollah Explosions, but Didn’t Make the Devices

TAIPEI — A company based in the Republic of China on Taiwan, Gold Apollo, said Wednesday that it authorized its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria but that another company based in Budapest manufactured them.Pagers used by hundreds of members of the terrorist group Hezbollah exploded near-simultaneously Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding more than 2,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.The AR-924 pagers used by the militants were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based at Hungary’s capital, according to a statement released Wednesday by Gold Apollo.“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” the statement read.Gold Apollo’s chairman, Hsu Ching-kuang, told journalists Wednesday that his company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years, but did not provide evidence of the contract.The AR-924 pager, advertised as being “rugged,” contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications once advertised on Gold Apollo’s website before it was apparently taken down Tuesday after the sabotage attack. The device could receive text messages of up to 100 characters and claimed to have up to 85 days of battery life. That’s something that would be crucial in Lebanon, where electricity outages have been common as the tiny nation on the Mediterranean Sea has faced years of economic collapse. Pagers also run on a different wireless network than mobile phones, making them more resilient in emergencies — one of the reasons why many hospitals worldwide still rely on them.

Taiwanese Firm Says It Authorized Its Trademark on Pagers in Anti-Hezbollah Explosions, but Didn’t Make the Devices

Taiwanese Firm Says It Authorized Its Trademark on Pagers in Anti-Hezbollah Explosions, but Didn’t Make the Devices

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