In this announcement, Fujian Jinhua pointed out that Micron's infringement was unscrupulous: Jinhua's patents were authorized in 2009 and 2012 and announced to the outside world. Fujian Jinhua analyzed the related products of Micron and will analyze the obtained products. The characteristics are compared with the technical features in the claim of Jinhua, and the technical solutions of the products are determined to fall within the scope of protection of Jinhua patents.
The statement was quickly spread in all major media, and the title was titled 'The US chip giant was accused of infringement in China, and the stock price plummeted' and so on.
This case is easily reminiscent of the Sino-US trade war and ZTE's US sanctions. Many people think that the Chinese chip industry also has to deal with US patents, which is considered to be a game in the Sino-US trade war.
But those who hold this kind of thinking may be a bit disappointed.
On July 3, Taiwan Lianhua Electronics released a major information statement saying that it was accepted by the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court of China on July 3, 2018, regarding Micron Semiconductor (Xi'an) Co., Ltd., Micron Semiconductor Sales (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Waiting for the first stop to infringe the patent right involved (Patent No.: ZL03100966.2) Make (2018) 闽01 No. 137, No. 137, Civil Proceedings (hereinafter referred to as the ruling). The main main judgments are as follows:
Micron Semiconductor (Xi'an) Co., Ltd. immediately stopped manufacturing, sales, importing Platinum Sports Ballistix Platinum wins desktop memory DDR4 2400 8G two (physical product model: Crucial Yinglida memory stick BALLISTIX 16GB KIT 2-8GB DDR4-2400 UDIMM 12 products including 1.2V) and BX chips.
Micron Semiconductor Sales (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. immediately stopped selling, imported 17 products including Crucial DDR424008G notebook memory and C9BGM chip, and immediately stopped sales of Xintongyuan Computer Operation Department of Siming District, Xiamen City, and promised to sell Crucial English. Ruida DDR4-2400 8G notebook memory and C9BGM chip.
UMC added that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in mainland China for the sale of its products in mainland China and infringed its patent rights in mainland China, and applied for a pre-litigation ban in accordance with the provisions of the Chinese Patent Law. .
Based on two statements by Fujian Jinhua and Taiwan Lianhua Electronics, the Fujian Intermediate People’s Court’s pre-indictment ban was directed against Taiwan’s Lianhua Electronics. The relevant patent number is ZL03100966.2, and the patentee is also Taiwan’s Lianhua Electronics. .
The cause of this case is complicated.
In September 2017, Taiwan’s Taichung District Prosecutor’s Office found out the surname of Taiwan’s Micron. Wang’s employees quit to Lianhua Electronics, suspected of leaking Micron’s DRAM technology to UMC, helping UMC to develop 32nm DRAM and find out The cooperation between Hua Electronics and Fujian Jinhua in mainland China, according to the Taiwan Business Secrets Act, prosecuted He Xing, Wang surnamed Man, Lianhua Electronics's surname and Lianhua Electronics.
In December 2017, Micron filed a civil lawsuit in California, arguing that Taiwan’s Lianhua Electronics infringed on trade secrets and disclosed relevant technical secrets to its partner Fujian Jinhua, accusing Lianhua Electronics and Fujian Jinhua of infringing DRAM's trade secrets. .
On January 12, 2018, Taiwan Lianhua Electronics announced that it had filed a complaint with Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court in mainland China, accusing Meiguang of allegedly infringing UMC's patents on storage products such as DRAM and Solid State Drive (SSD), which will claim a total of 270 million. Yuan Renminbi.
On January 19, 2018, Fujian Jinhua submitted a complaint to the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court, suing Meiguang's patent infringement, and ordered Meiguang to immediately stop infringing Jinhua's patents, and requested compensation of RMB 196 million.
This series of intellectual property cases in China and the United States involves three parties, the United States Micron, Taiwan Lianhua Electronics, Fujian Jinhua, of which Taiwan Lianhua Electronics and Fujian Jinhua are partners.
Fujian Jinhua did not disclose the relevant patents involved in the case. There are only 17 invention patent applications in the patent data published by Fujian Jinhua, and no patents have been granted. These patent applications are jointly applied by Fujian Jinhua and Taiwan Lianhua Electronics.
However, through patent analysis, on January 19, 2018, Taiwan Lianhua Electronics transferred the patent for the invention of CN101604673B to Fujian Jinhua. It was on January 19, 2018, Fujian Jin. China officially sued Micron for patent infringement.
Taiwan Lianhua Electronics has close cooperation with Fujian Jinhua. In February 2016, Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. was established. In May 2017, Lianhua Electronics announced that it had signed a contract with Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd., and Lianhua Electronics accepted Jinhua commissioned the development of DRAM related process technology.
Regarding the cooperation between Lianhua Electronics and Jinhua, the Taiwan Land Inspection Agency investigated that Jinhua provided 300 million U.S. dollars to purchase R&D equipment, and successively paid Lianhua Electronics 400 million U.S. dollars according to the progress. The development results were shared by both parties. After the completion of the overall technology, Transfer to Jinhua for mass production.
Since then, the context of these cases has been clear.
In May 2017, Taiwan Lianhua Electronics announced that it signed a contract with Fujian Jinhua.
In September 2017, Taiwan Taichung District Inspection Office found out that Taiwan Lianhua Electronics infringed on the trade secrets of American Micron and sued Taiwan Lianhua Electronics.
In December 2017, Micron filed a civil lawsuit in California, accusing UMC and Fujian Jinhua of infringing DRAM's trade secrets.
On January 12, 2018, Taiwan Lianhua Electronics filed a lawsuit with the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court in mainland China, accusing Meiguang of infringing its patents in the DRAM field.
On January 19, 2018, on the day when Taiwan Lianhua Electronics transferred a patent to Fujian Jinhua, Fujian Jinhua also formally sued Meiguang Patent Infringement in Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court.
The cause of these cases was the Taiwan Taichung District Prosecutor’s Office investigating Taiwan’s Lianhua Electronics’ infringement of US Micron’s trade secrets, which led to Micron’s lawsuit against UMC and Fujian Jinhua in the United States.
The mayor of Taiwan, Taichung, is currently served by Lin Jialong, a member of the Standing Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party. Meiguang Semiconductor is a successful case of the Taiwanese government's investment. Lin Jialong also met with the president of Micron this year. In addition, Taiwan's Micron Semiconductor is actually a joint venture between Formosa Plastics Group and Micron Group. Among them, Formosa Plastics Group is the largest shareholder, and the main body of this company is the DRAM factory, which is directly competing with Fujian Jinhua.
The Taiwan regional government is certainly not willing to see the DRAM industry shift from Taichung to Fujian, not to mention that Taichung is currently governed by the DPP.
The intellectual property subject behind this case still belongs to Taiwan United Electronics. The mainland pays for research and development expenses in order to develop semiconductors, and the final intellectual property rights must be shared. In patent litigation, the US media also consistently points to mainland China. Even contacted the Sino-US trade war. The mainland has not received much intellectual property rights, but it has already reached the cusp of the cusp, and may bear direct retaliation from the United States.
Taiwan has an important position in the global semiconductor industry chain. However, when the mainland cooperates with Taiwanese enterprises, it must take into account more complicated situations. Under the situation of the DPP, those companies that work closely with the mainland are Taiwan may have to bear more. In short, innovation in the chip field will ultimately depend on one's own strengths, and any shortcuts may have unexpected risks.