Set micro-grid launch WeChat IC: "every day IP", cutting-edge patents released dynamically, every day IP, every day set micro-network, micro-into a! Scan the end of two-dimensional code to add attention.
1, UMC in the country filed three lawsuits against Micron, and claims 270 million yuan;
Set micro-grid news, in December 2017, Micron Technology filed a civil lawsuit in California, sued UMC and Jinhua, Fujian infringement on DRAM business secrets. In response, UMC made a counterattack today, respectively, to the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court, Three lawsuits were filed against Micron Semiconductor (Xi'an), Micron Semiconductor (Shanghai), Xiamen Siming Qu Xin Tong Computer Co., Ltd. and Xiamen Aetaisheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., requesting a total compensation of RMB270 million.
In addition, UMC asked the court to order the relevant defendant to stop manufacturing, processing, importing, selling and promising to sell the allegedly infringing products and to destroy all the inventory and related molds and tools.
It is learned that UMC not only accused Micron of infringing on a number of its patents, and claimed that Micron manufactures, produces and sells Crucial DDR4 2400 8G notebook memory, Crucial MX300 2.5-inch SSD 525GB SSD and Colorful iGame1080 flames X-8GD5X graphics card Graphics memory chips allegedly infringe UMC patents in mainland China.
UMC said the company has invested a lot of resources and manpower, research and development of semiconductor manufacturing technology, the results for the logic chip or memory chips (DRAM), over the years have been filed in various countries and obtain a number of patents, but also continue to pay attention to the company's patent in the market The status of the United States as a well-known international company, the recent year, UMC moves frequently, obviously the dispute with the separation of employees, rendered as an infringement between businesses and sued UMC in the United States.After an in-depth examination, UMC found that the United States Products marketed in mainland China infringed on UMC's patent rights and filed a patent infringement lawsuit in mainland China in the hope of obtaining a fair judgment.
In fact, the dispute between Micron and UMC has to be traced back to last year. In May 2017, UMC announced that it signed a contract with Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd., and UMC accepted Jinhua's entrustment to develop DRAM related process technologies. Cooperation, Taiwan's Procuratorate Department of investigation by Jinhua to provide 300 million US dollars to purchase R & D equipment, and in accordance with the progress of one after another to pay 400 million UMC, the development of both common, the overall technology is completed, and then transferred to Jinhua for mass production.
In September 2017, the Taichung Prosecutor's Office found out that surnamed Wang of Taiwan's Micron, Wang surnamed Wang, was hired by UMC to suspend exposure of Micron's DRAM technology to UMC to help UMC develop its 32nm DRAM design rules promptly, in violation of the Trade Secrets Act, etc. Suspected of crimes, prosecution Ho surname, surnamed Wang, UMC rong surname associate and UMC.
Then at the end of 2017, Micron filed a civil lawsuit in California, suing UMC and Fujian Jinhua for violating DRAM business secrets.
2, Samsung collapsible smart phones will be postponed until 2019, the draft patent was exposed;
Recently, WIPO (WIPO) announced the draft of a curved screen screen patent applied by Samsung on June 14 last year, and according to the draft, the patented device will have a huge display screen that can be hinged In addition, the speaker is located in the top of the phone, the battery in the lower part of the phone, but also with a heart rate monitor.
It is noteworthy that these sketches have been around for six months and that Samsung may make some significant changes to the product so that the final product is not yet known.
3, global semiconductor patent war R & D competition upgrade;
Recalling China's semiconductor events in 2017 and two IPR disputes against domestic semiconductor companies, it is not hard to find that industry litigation began to emerge among giants as the Chinese semiconductor gradually emerged.
On December 8, 2017, Micron filed a civil lawsuit in California, suing UMC and Jinhua of Fujian for infringing upon the business secrets of DRAM, of which Fujian Jinhua is one of the three major memory projects in China and mainly focuses on the breakthrough of DRAM technology.
Earlier, on April 12, 2017, Veeco, a MOCVD equipment maker, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against SGS, a semiconductor supplier in the United States. Subsequently, Microtech launched a counter-offensive and on July 13, Microtech Semiconductor Fujian Provincial Higher People's Court officially sued Veeco for patent infringement in Shanghai and won a patent injunction against Veeco Shanghai on December 8.
Then, on December 21, the Fujian court heard about the case of China Semiconductor's prosecution, but the final verdict is still unknown .. January 11, 2018, Semiconductor reported in the 21st Century Business Herald reporter: 'There is no feedback , Still waiting for the final result. 'And the same sensitive period of Fujian Jinhua, then rejected this reporter's interview.
At the moment, the disputes between the parties to the lawsuit continue.
Offensive and defensive game
As a means of competition, the mutual patent supremacy among giants is quite common, but both the SMIC and Fujian Jinhua sued the industry for surprises.
First of all, from Veeco's indictment, its object of prosecution in the United States is not the micro-semiconductor itself, but its wafer carrier supplier SGL wafer carrier is the core of MOCVD semiconductor MOCVD important material, MOCVD It is the key equipment for LED chip production. Veeco said SGL infringed its patent and demanded that SGL be banned from providing sourcing for Microchip Semiconductor. The U.S. court then approved the embargo in November 2017.
In the opinion of Gu Wenjun, chief research analyst of Vexco, Veeco's complaint was '庄 庄 舞 剑'. 'He also said:' In the absence of a valid patent on Veeco's MOCVD reactor base pallets and whether the micro-pallets are designed Prior to the infringement, US courts imposed a preliminary embargo on SGL's supply to China Microelectronics, which is rarely seen in the industry, especially since SGL did not know that they were infringing on micro-pallets and was not intentional In the case of infringement, the embargo is unprecedented. '
On the one hand, Microchip Microelectronics sued Veeco for patented locking of pallets and shafts in the Fujian High Court; on the other hand, China Microelectronics filed patent infringement patents in China, the United States, and South Korea Invalid request
In a public statement earlier, Dr. Yin Chi-yao, chairman and chief executive officer of Micro and Micro, said: 'We are confident Micro will win the patent lawsuit against Veeco Shanghai, which will infringe its sale of the EPIK 700 series of MOCVD equipment since 2014 In addition, we are convinced that our suppliers will eventually win patent litigation in the United States. '
In fact, in the field of MOCVD, it is dominated by Veeco and Aixtron. In recent years, Smichen Semiconductor has developed rapidly and started to seize market share. Veeco, under pressure, came up with a patent stick.
Recently, Wang Fei, an analyst at LEDinside, a consultancy in 21st century, said: 'China is now the largest MOCVD market in the world. The sales volume of China Micro in 2016 surpassed that of Veeco in 2016, threatening Veeco's interests. Micro-view, the principle of the tray Many industries are in use, the semiconductor many years ago, there are more similar products, not original patents.
On the other hand, Micron sued Taiwan UFM and Fujian Jinhua for stealing its trade secrets and other misconduct, as well as accidental factors, due to the lawsuit brought by UMC's flow of talent, which is jointly operated by UMC and Jinhua Jinhua also became the defendant.
Gu Wenjun said: 'In this case, UMC (UMC) is responsible for the parties to be held.Although it is Taiwan's domestic companies, but UMC is a public company listed in the United States, and Jinhua signed an agreement under the jurisdiction of the United States in California. The reasons for being prosecuted in the United States are also part of the difference in concept. Due to the lack of control over the details of the leaders in the United States, the lack of attention to the details of the supervision by the U.S. government on listed companies, and the lack of proper treatment of technological sources, , Employee personal behavior will also bring harm to Jinhua.When the staff for the runway, copy the information, sometimes difficult to learn from experience.
Competition continues
While China's semiconductor industry is facing international litigation, the competitive situation is still grim.
Take MOCVD device of medium and micro semiconductor as an example, as a core key device for epitaxial growth of LED chip, a MOCVD can cost 10 million to 20 million RMB. In the LED industry, the upstream enterprise is the bottleneck of technological progress. The key to the development of the entire industry. LED industry chain in all aspects of the number of participating companies were pyramid-shaped distribution. Upstream, including raw material supply, wafer production, high-end equipment manufacturing, chip manufacturing, with technology and capital-intensive features, competing companies have the core Technology, a small number, including China's micro-and Aixtron in Germany, the United States Emcore company, while the prosecutor Veeco is the acquisition of MOCVD Emcore part.Currently, the main semiconductor market in China and micro-semiconductor is still in the country, Are catching up with traditional veeco and other giants.
From Fujian Jinhua representative memory market point of view, 2016, for example, integrated circuit sales account for 82% of the entire semiconductor industry, memory occupy 23% of the entire semiconductor market.Currently the most important memory, including DRAM, NAND FLASH, NOR FLASH The DRAM is the memory of the mobile phone.The Micron Technology filed a civil lawsuit in California in the United States, accusing UMC and Jinhua of Fujian against its business secrets, mainly focusing on DRAM.
The memory giant in the world mainly in South Korea, including Samsung and Hynix, the entire South Korea's memory industry accounts for more than 60% of the world, including DRAM, Samsung and Hynix together accounted for 80% of the global share of China's memory is also Accelerate the development of major manufacturers, including the Group, Wuhan Xinxin, Jinhua, Fujian, Siu Yi innovation.The first two have been merged into the Yangtze River storage, and DRAM in the area of greater progress is Jinhua.
In Gu Wenjun view, China's memory industry will certainly have an overseas litigation.Changjiang Storage is the 3D NAND direction, Jinhua, Changxin is the DRAM direction, but the three core competitiveness are advanced wafer manufacturing capacity.Changjiang Storage Rely on Spansion technology to become the vanguard of independent research and development; UMC, Jinhua is the Taiwan-China cooperation model, opened a key breakthrough in memory technology; Chang Xin, Siu Yi innovation is the pioneer of domestic enterprises to independently develop DRAM technology If any of the three go hand in hand, the future will be the same as wedging a nails in the iron monopoly market.
4, eye control does not meet! Microsoft Idea control technology patent outflow;
'Zhongguancun Online News' News January 12, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a number of new patents, one of Microsoft's new patent is particularly noticeable.Microsoft's new patent is through the neural data control applications , And change the state of the application.
It is mentioned in the patent document that a computer connected to an EEG sensor can read an electronic signal from a user's brain and then the computer changes the application state based on the user's neurological state and may also telepathic in the future , You can use the mind to move an object.
Last August, Microsoft pushed Windows 10 Build 16257 version updates to members of Windows Insider Express and the most eye-catching part of the update was the addition of Eye Control, though it was still in the beta stage .
If you want to use the eyeball control feature need to purchase Tobii Eye Tracker 4C, the future will also support Tobii's Dynavox PCEye Mini, PCEyePlus, EyeMobile Plus and I series products.When activated eye control function, the interface will appear on the control panel , And set the mouse, keyboard, voice broadcast, reset UI layout and other options, users only need to move the eye to watch the system UI can activate the relevant button.
5. The success of the strategy of soaring US patents held by Chinese enterprises toward the R & D powerhouse was remarkable.
US media reported January 12, the industry data show that in less than 10 years, the number of US patents held by Chinese enterprises increased by nearly 9 times.This is China's strategic transformation from a factory in Silicon Valley to R & D powers are Another sign of success.
According to a report by Bloomberg News Agency on January 9, the U.S. patent investigation agency's commercial patent database released a report on the 9th that Chinese enterprises obtained a total of 11,241 U.S. patents in 2017, an increase of 28% over 2016. This made China (excluding Taiwan Area) for the first time among the top five U.S. patent holders, after the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany, while Chinese firms gained nearly nine times more U.S. patents from 2008 to 2017.
Fisitstone, a lawyer with Stern-Kessler-Goldstein-Fox law firm based in Washington, said the patent applicants, both large and start-ups seeking transformation, are mainly concentrated in the area of electronic technology , 'They want to sell their products in the United States, set up local sales outlets in the United States, and they want to become more competitive.'
It is reported that patents are a reflection of a country's or enterprise's ability to innovate, and more importantly, patents protect businesses in a competitive market where Chinese companies can sell their own products in the largest markets in the world. In the past 10 years, the Chinese government has always regarded encouraging innovation as a priority.
The World Intellectual Property Organization report shows that in 2016, the number of patent applications in China reached 1.3 million, surpassing the sum of the United States, Japan, South Korea and Europe, but the data from the commercial patent database show that the number of U.S. patents held by China still exists in other countries A big gap. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved 320,000 patents last year, with Chinese companies accounting for just 3.5%.
However, Larry Kadi, senior analyst at Commercial Patent Database, said: "China is growing at an impressive rate." In recent years, Chinese electronics manufacturers, which mainly assembled products for foreign companies, started to develop their own technology and self Branded Products: Chinese companies such as BOE, Huawei and Huaxing Power have all entered the top 50 global patent rankings in the commercial patent database in 2017.
The largest number of patent applications is in the high-tech sector, including data processing and sensors, semiconductors, wireless transmission, etc. Reference Information Network