Harvard sues Micron for patent infringement
Harvard University has revealed it has sued semiconductor company Micron Technology, alleging that its chip manufacturing process infringes technology discovered by the university.
According to a statement by the university “the technology relates to the deposition of thin films of metals and other materials onto surfaces”.
Micron has been accused of using the technology without a licence in the production of memory chips.
The accused patents, US numbers 6,969,539 and 8,334,016, relate to technology discovered in the late 1990s by professor Roy Gordon and his team at Harvard.
Harvard has also sued GlobalFoundries, another semiconductor company.
In a press release revealing the lawsuit, a Harvard spokesperson said: “Harvard has reached out to each of the named companies outside of the context of litigation and invited them to engage in good faith licensing discussions.”
The university added: “The companies have refused to engage and have, so far, continued their infringement activities.”
The complaint was filed on June 24 in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
