SMIC to challenge latest TSMC infringement claims
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) said Wednesday it will defend itself against the latest allegations of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation made by rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC).
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I2 Technologies accused SAP of patent infringement in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
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Antitrust officials are looking for evidence that the chipmaker broke the rules to guarantee its chips would be competitive on the European market. Intel says it is cooperating with the investigation.
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(InfoWorld) - South Korean antitrust regulators have issued preliminary allegations against IntelÂ forÂ allegedly undermining competition in its PC microprocessor market, but formal charges won't be made for at least another month. The Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) sent a "statement of objection" to Intel, which contained preliminary allegations, said Nick Jacobs, an Intel spokesman in Singapore. The document is not a final decision, nor has it been upheld by a court. "It does not itself amount to a finding that there has been a violation of law," he said. "As such, any conclusions about our business practices are at best premature." A senior deputy director at South Korea's FTC said the investigation against Intel remains ongoing. The next step for the world's largest chip maker is to respond to the letter of objection, after which the FTC will rule on the case. South Korea could become the third place to rule on an Intel antitrust case. In 2005, Japan's Fair Trade Commission helped kick off the recent spate ofÂ investigations against IntelÂ by ruling that the company's Japan unit stifled competition by offering rebates to Japanese PC makers in return for agreements to limit purchases of or not buy rival x86 microprocessors. Earlier this year, the European Commission ruled similarly,Â alleging that Intel violated EU antitrust lawsÂ by giving rebates to customers that enabled the company to win sales from rival Advanced Micro Devices. AMD filed an antitrust suit against IntelÂ in June, 2005 at the U.S. District Court in Delaware, shortly after Japan's FTC revealed its allegations against the company. "Following formal action in Japan and Europe, global scrutiny is increasingly focused on Intel's harm to competition and consumers alike. Governments around the world must enforce antitrust laws to bring fair and open competition that will benefit computer manufacturers and buyers everywhere," said Tom McCoy, AMD's executive vice president, legal affairs and chief administrative officer, in an e-mail. (Ben Ames in Boston contributed to this report.)
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International Business Machines  Corp. has requested documents from Intel Corp., the world's  largest chip maker, as it prepares its defense in a  billion-dollar dispute with SCO Group Inc. over the Linux  operating system.
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A legal battle is shaping up in California involving a Chinese startup that makes equipment used to produce semiconductors.Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment&#160;(AMEC), of Shanghai, was sued in California by Applied Materials, which claims the company misappropriated its trade secrets. But lawyers for the Chinese company asked the judge to dismiss the suit, arguing the U.S. court has no jurisdiction over AMEC&#39;s activities.AMEC&#39;s motion for dismissal will be heard by Judge James Ware of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, on Feb. 11.Applied&#39;s lawsuit, filed in October and amended last month, claims AMEC used its trade secrets to develop etch and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposit) tools that are used to make chips. AMEC&#39;s tools will compete against similar products from Applied, which cost millions of dollars each. Applied is seeking an injunction from the court to prevent the misappropriation of its trade secrets and wants punitive damages as well as a declaration that it owns patent applications recently filed by AMEC.Applied identified four former employees in the suit, including AMEC founders Gerald Yin and Aihua Chen.Applied&#39;s amended complaint describes Yin, who left Applied in 2004 to start AMEC, as a former corporate vice president and chief technology officer who &quot;managed the etch product group and had broad access to Applied confidential information and trade secrets concerning its etch tools.&quot; In addition, the complaint says Chen at one point served as general manager of Applied&#39;s CVD product group and had access to proprietary technology related to those tools.To bolster its case against AMEC, Applied noted that the former employees identified in the lawsuit signed agreements that give Applied all rights to inventions made during their employment, and prevent them from using Applied&#39;s confidential information for anyone else&#39;s benefit. Under the agreement, any patents filed by the former employees within one year of leaving Applied are &quot;presumed to have been conceived or made during their employment with Applied and would belong to Applied.&quot;As a result, Applied&#39;s complaint lays claim to two AMEC patent applications filed in China on August 5, 2005, that name Yin and other former Applied employees as inventors. These patents should belong to Applied as the patent applications were made &quot;one year and three days after Yin left applied&quot; and therefore must be based on information that Yin disclosed to AMEC during the one year period, the complaint said.AMEC subsequently filed patent claims in Japan and the U.S. based on the Chinese patent applications. Applied&#39;s complaint also claims these patent applications as its own, noting Applied filed its own patent applications covering the same technologies.In response, AMEC&#39;s motion to dismiss argues that the U.S. court has no jurisdiction over the Chinese company.&quot;In this case, there is no jurisdiction over AMEC Inc., because the allegations of the (amended complaint) relate exclusively to actions that took place in China. None of Applied&#39;s claims arises out of allegations concerning contact with California,&quot; the motion said, adding any legal action by Applied against AMEC should be heard in a Chinese court instead.
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TechWeb - IBM claims the Taiwan-based computer and components manufacturer infringes on three of its patents.
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Panel trying to decide whether to bring formal antitrust charges against the chipmaker, according to a source.
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The ITC is following up on unfair trade allegations made by InterDigital.
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Japan&#39;s Toshiba Corp., claiming patent infringement in flash-memory chips on the part of Korean semiconductor manufacturer Hynix, filed a lawsuit with Tokyo District Court on Monday.
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), China&#39;s largest chip maker, fell short of its bid to turn a profit in 2007, ending the year with a $40 million loss. But that&#160;won&#39;t stop the company from expanding in 2008.SMIC saw revenue of $1.5 billion during 2007, an increase of 5.8 percent over the previous year. But higher sales weren&#39;t enough to offset a slide in DRAM prices and the company ended the year with a loss, albeit one that was slightly narrower than the $44.1 million loss recorded by the company in 2006.SMIC turned in a fourth-quarter loss of $22.2 million on revenue of $395.3 million. By comparison, the company reported a profit of $143,000 for the fourth quarter of 2006, thanks to an exceptional one-time gain from the sale of used equipment.Once seen as a potential rival to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world&#39;s largest contract chip maker,&#160;SMIC has struggled to turn a profit. Part of the problem is that, as the company built a series of new chip plants in China, it turned to DRAM companies for orders in a bid to fill these production lines. But DRAM is a brutal business with razor-thin margins and&#160;recent declines in memory prices&#160;have hurt SMIC&#39;s bottom line.SMIC is trying to wean itself off DRAM as a source of revenue, but the switch to production of more logic chips, which generally command higher prices and have better margins, hasn&#39;t happened fast enough to pull the chip maker out of the red.DRAM represented 23.6 percent of SMIC&#39;s revenue during the fourth quarter, compared to 38.6 percent during the same period last year. By comparison, logic chips represented a greater percentage of SMIC&#39;s fourth-quarter revenue, rising from 57.4 percent in 2006 to 67.4 percent last year.Despite reporting another annual loss, SMIC continues to expand. The company announced plans to build a 200-millimeter production line and a 300-millimeter fabrication plant in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city that lies next to Hong Kong. Construction will begin during the first half of 2008, the company said.
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Computer-chip maker Actions   Semiconductor Co. ACTS.O said on Wednesday that it has filed   a lawsuit against rival SigmaTel Inc. SGTL.O in a Chinese   court, alleging violation of intellectual property rights.
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Import injunction sought while patent violation case pends
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) said Wednesday it will defend itself against the latest allegations of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation
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Company files new lawsuits against cybersquatters in the U.K. and the U.S., charging violation of intellectual property law.
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High-stakes patent royalties battle enters another round.
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This week, the US Federal Trade Commission is apparently not yet satisfied that Intel has adequately addressed its standard antitrust concerns. Today, Intel announced it received what is formally called a "second request" notice from the FTC.