TSMC Files Law Suit Against SMIC for Patent Infringement and Trade Secret Misappropriation
Hsinchu, Taiwan, December 22, 2003 - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) (TSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM), TSMC North America and WaferTech filed a complaint in the US District Court of Northern California on December 19th against Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and SMIC Americas alleging that SMIC has infringed multiple patents and misappropriated trade secrets. The suit also asks for injunctive relief along with monetary damages.
The complaint alleges that SMIC improperly obtained TSMC trade secrets and infringed TSMC patents. For example, the complaint states that SMIC hired over 100 TSMC employees and asked some of them to provide SMIC with TSMC’s trade secrets. The suit alleges that a SMIC official asked a then-TSMC manager to obtain TSMC process information and forward it to SMIC.
“We feel that we have no other choice than to proceed through the courts in order to protect our technology,” said Dr. Dick Thurston, Vice President and General Counsel for TSMC. “It is our obligation to protect our patents and trade secrets to maintain shareholder value,” Dr. Thurston explained.
About TSMC
TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology and the foundry industry's largest portfolio of process-proven library, IP, design tools and reference flows. The company operates one advanced 300mm wafer fab, five eight-inch fabs and one six-inch wafer fab. TSMC also has substantial capacity commitments at its wholly owned subsidiary, WaferTech, and its joint venture fab, SSMC. In early 2001, TSMC became the first IC manufacturer to announce a 90-nm technology alignment program with its customers. TSMC's corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC please see http://www.tsmc.com.
Issued by: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company
|
Related News
- GLOBALFOUNDRIES Files Patent Infringement Lawsuits Against TSMC In the U.S. and Germany
- Mentor Graphics Files Patent Infringement Suit against EVE
- WiLAN Files Patent Infringement Suit
- NVE Files Patent Infringement Suit Against Everspin Technologies
- MOSAID Files Patent Infringement Suit Against NVIDIA, Freescale and Interphase
Breaking News
- Logic Design Solutions launches Gen4 NVMe host IP
- ULYSS1, Microcontroller (MCU) for Automotive market, designed by Cortus is available
- M31 is partnering with Taiwan Cooperative Bank to launch an Employee Stock Ownership Trust to strengthen talent retention
- Sondrel announces CEO transition to lead next phase of growth
- JEDEC Publishes LPDDR5 CAMM2 Connector Performance Standard
Most Popular
- Arm's power play will backfire
- Alphawave Semi Selected for AI Innovation Research Grant from UK Government's Advanced Research + Invention Agency
- Secure-IC obtains the first worldwide CAVP Certification of Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithms, tested by SERMA Safety & Security
- Weebit Nano continuing to make progress with potential customers and qualifying its technology Moving closer to finalisation of licensing agreements Q1 FY25 Quarterly Activities Report
- PUFsecurity Collaborate with Arm on PSA Certified RoT Component Level 3 Certification for its Crypto Coprocessor to Provide Robust Security Subsystem Essential for the AIoT era
E-mail This Article | Printer-Friendly Page |