Stefan Mileschin

Patent infringement

TSMC has announced it filed multiple lawsuits on September 30, 2019 against Globalfoundries in the US, Germany and Singapore for its alleged ongoing infringement of 25 patents by at least its 40nm, 28nm, 22nm, 14nm, and 12nm node processes.

TSMC wants injunctions to stop Globalfoundries' manufacture and sale of allegedly infringing semiconductor products. It also wants piles of cash.

The 25 TSMC patents include FinFET designs, shallow trench isolation techniques, double patterning methods, advanced seal rings and gate structures, and contact etch stop layer designs, TSMC said. These specific technologies cover the core features of mature and advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes.

The outfit claims it pioneered the dedicated semiconductor foundry model, enabling an entire fabless IC design industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the US.

TSMC general counsel Sylvia Fang [no, really? Ed] said: "TSMC's patents reflect decades and tens of billions of dollars of investments in innovation, resulting in TSMC's significant contribution to advancements in semiconductor manufacturing technology.

"These lawsuits seek to protect our reputation, our significant investments, our nearly 500 customers, and consumers worldwide to ensure everyone benefits from the most advanced semiconductor technologies that enable a wide range of applications such as mobile, 5G, AI, IoT and high performance computing, which are critically important to the public interest."

Globalfoundries in August 2019 announced it had filed multiple lawsuits in the US and Germany alleging that semiconductor manufacturing technologies used by TSMC infringe 16 GloFo patents.

https://fudzilla.com/news/49497-tsmc...oflo-legal-war