Chinese chipmaker targets Micron on home turf

Lawsuit sees one of China’s largest semiconductor companies foray into US courts | In the face of White House sanctions, China is emerging as a world-leading chip producer.

Chinese memory chip maker  Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) is suing Idaho-based  Micron Technology in a US federal court.

The complaint, filed at the  US District Court for the Northern District of California on Sunday, November 12, alleges the infringement of eight patents, US numbers: 10,950,623, 11,501,822, 10,658,378, 10,937,806, 10,861,872, 11,468,957, 11,600,342, and 10,868,031.

It comes in the wake of sanctions that saw the White House placing the Wuhan-based chip maker on a blacklist last year, which forbade it to use US technology in the making of its chips.

China’s government retaliated a few months later by launching a  cybersecurity review into Micron.

YMTC: 3D NAND ‘market leader’

Founded in 2016, YMTC is one of China’s largest developers and manufacturers of 3D NAND flash memory chips.

It argues that it has quickly become a key player in the global 3D NAND market, citing a  TechInsights report that acknowledged YMTC “as the leader in 3D NAND flash,” after it “leap-frogged Micron”.

Micron is threatened by this ascension, alleges YMTC, which further accuses its US rival of engaging in “attempts to hinder competition and innovation via its attempts to force YMTC out of the 3D NAND flash memory market”.

“More specifically, this is an action to put an end to Micron’s widespread and unauthorised use of YMTC patented innovations.

“Micron has turned to use of YMTC’s patented technologies in an effort to fend off competition from YMTC, and to gain and protect market share,” adds the complaint.

By not paying its fair share to use YMTC’s patented inventions, Micron is instead “freeriding on YMTC’s innovations”, and robs from “the incentive to innovate”, according to YMTC.

China was the world's largest market for semiconductor production equipment in the April-June quarter, accounting for 29% of global sales, according to trade group  SEMI.

And despite US sanctions, Chinese imports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment soared by more than 90% year-on-year in the last quarter of this year, reported a  Nikkei analysis of Chinese customs data.

Additionally, China has  taken advantage of the trade curbs imposed upon it to enhance its domestic manufacturing technology, the Nikkei report added.