Chinese Memory Manufacturer YMTC Sues Micron Over 3D NAND Patents

[Nomad76]

Chinese memory manufacturer YMTC has filed a lawsuit against U.S.-based Micron in California, alleging infringement of 11 patents related to 3D NAND Flash and DRAM products. YMTC seeks to halt Micron's sales of the allegedly infringing products in the U.S. and demands royalty payments. Founded in Wuhan, China, in 2016, YMTC is a key player in China's efforts to develop a domestic chip industry. However, in October 2022, the U.S. government placed YMTC on its Entity List, restricting its access to advanced U.S. manufacturing equipment for 3D NAND chips with 128 layers or more.

Before these restrictions, YMTC had obtained certification from Apple for its 128-layer 3D NAND chips, with the US tech giant considering using YMTC chips to reduce costs and diversify its supply chain beyond Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. The lawsuit specifically targets Micron's 3D NAND Flash products with 96, 128, 176, and 232 layers, as well as certain DDR5 SDRAM products. This legal action follows a similar suit filed by YMTC against Micron in November, alleging infringement of eight U.S. patents related to 3D NAND Flash. With government backing, Chinese firms are increasingly engaging in patent litigation both domestically and internationally. Last year alone, Chinese courts handled over 5,000 technical intellectual property and monopoly cases.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[bonehead123]

Founded in Wuhan, China, in 2016

The Covid Kingdom ?

I won't be buying anything from there, chips or otherwise....

Hopefully Micron can litigate them into the ground and get on with their excellent work in chip making

 

[64K]

I can't help but chuckle when I see a Chinese company backed by the Chinese govt suing a US company for patent infringement. At the end of the day this is just politics.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

A company based in a country known for stealing patented/intellectual technologies suing outside companies for infringing its patents.

 

[P4-630]

It's usually the other way around...

 

[evernessince]

They sued Micron in China and won as well. Not that you could say the trial was unbiased, state run company and state run court both controlled by the CCP that has been caught stealing IP multiple times. For those that want an account of the theft of IP from Micron here is an article on the subject: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/technology/china-micron-chips-theft.html

 

[maxfly]

A company founded upon stealing ip, suing another for ip infringement. Yeah.

 

[Prima.Vera]

The hypocrisy and irony is too strong to put a meaningful comment regarding YMTC's action. This is so ridiculous and callous on so many levels...

 

[R0H1T]

Well Huawei sued Mediatek just the other day, so what's new? They're just copying American tactics even more aggressively now!

 

[Deleted member 229121]

The aroma is quite strong on this one...

 

[bonehead123]

The aroma is quite strong on this one...

May the force NOT be with them, and/or strike them down with never-ending light saber strikes, hahaha

 

[Gooigi's Ex]

“CHINESE memory Manufacturer YMTC SUES Micron over 3D NAND PATENTS”

This was the funniest shit I read all day LMAO. A company that lives in a country that literally is the IP Theft capital of the World and has made and CONTINUING to make products from stolen IPs is SUING another company FOR THE SAME REASON WHY YOUR COUNTRY HAS A LOT OF MONEY.

What’s next? Xiaomi sues Apple because Xiaomi uses certain icons for their apps that looks JUST LIKE iPHONE ICONS so that makes it looks like Apple copied(granted, Apple deserves it lol).

Well Huawei sued Mediatek just the other day, so what's new? They're just copying American tactics even more aggressively now!

That was wild when I saw that. That sounds like to me Huawei needs some money.

A company based in a country known for stealing patented/intellectual technologies suing outside companies for infringing its patents.

Exactly

 

[trsttte]

It's obviously ironic that YMTC is suing anyone for patent infringement but the ammount of cases of memory manufacturers - be it micron, samsung, skhynix, even kioxia at some point - suing each other in recent months only reminds me of the classic spider man meme

 

[mechtech]

"Founded..................................in 2016,"

Wow, from nothing to big player in 8 years.

How does one do that????

 

[prtskg]

"Founded..................................in 2016,"

Wow, from nothing to big player in 8 years.

How does one do that????

By IP theft !

 

[TomWeng]

Some people are barking, guess who