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GLOBALFOUNDRIES Files Multiple Patent Infringement Lawsuits against TSMC and its Major Customers such as Apple

1 X GF logo

 

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF), who lost out to TSMC for manufacturing AMD's latest round of Ryzen 2 processors due to dropping out of the 7nm processor race, published a press release stating that they've filed multiple lawsuits in the U.S. and Germany alleging that semiconductor manufacturing technologies used by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) infringe 16 GF patents. The lawsuits were filed today in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. Federal District Courts in the Districts of Delaware and the Western District of Texas, and the Regional Courts of Dusseldorf and Mannheim in Germany.

 

GF's press release states that "In filing the lawsuits, GF seeks orders that will prevent semiconductors produced with the infringing technology by Taiwan-based TSMC, the dominant semiconductor manufacturer, from being imported into the U.S. and Germany.

 

These lawsuits require GF to name certain major customers of TSMC and downstream electronics companies, who, in most cases, are the actual importers of the products that incorporate the infringing TSMC technology. GF also seeks significant damages from TSMC based on TSMC’s unlawful use of GF’s proprietary technology in its tens of billions of dollars of sales."

 

Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president, engineering and technology at GF: 'While semiconductor manufacturing has continued to shift to Asia, GF has bucked the trend by investing heavily in the American and European semiconductor industries, spending more than $15 billion dollars in the last decade in the U.S. and more than $6 billion in Europe's largest semiconductor manufacturing fabrication facility.

 

These lawsuits are aimed at protecting those investments and the US and European-based innovation that powers them. For years, while we have been devoting billions of dollars to domestic research and development, TSMC has been unlawfully reaping the benefits of our investments. This action is critical to halt Taiwan Semiconductor’s unlawful use of our vital assets and to safeguard the American and European manufacturing base.'

 

GF is filing these lawsuits to protect its investments, assets and intellectual property, which will help to ensure that semiconductor manufacturing remains a competitive industry for the benefit of its clients.'"

 

In an Accompanying Document, GF Lists the Full 20 Defendants as follows:

 

Foundry: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.(TSMC)

Fabless chip designers: Apple, Broadcom, Mediatek, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Xilinx

Electronic component distributors: Avnet/EBV, Digi-key, Mouser

Consumer product: Arista, ASUS, BLU, Cisco, Google, HiSense, Lenovo, Motorola, TCL, OnePlus

 

Accused Infringing Technologies(5)

 

The five infringing technologies listed in the filing include: TSMC 7nm, 10nm, 12nm, 16nm and 28nm.

 

It should be noted that Reuters reported a year ago that GLOBALFOUNDRIES, whose clients include chipmakers such as Qualcomm, Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom and STMicroelectronics, said it would indefinitely put on hold research on the smaller, faster 7 nanometer technology."

 

The Reuters report further noted that "AMD said that it would move all of its 7 nanometer production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the market leader in the foundry, or contract market for making chips for firms without plants of their own."

 

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