Intel Accused of Infringing FinFET Patents of the Microelectronics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

[AleksandarK]

Today we are finding out that Intel has allegedly infringed FinFET patents of Microelectronics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On July 28th, the patent review committee has heard an application that accuses Intel of violating a patent 201110240931.5 commonly referred to as FinFET patent. The patent dates back to 2011, and it comes from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, mainly Microelectronics Institute. The Chinese patent holders are asking for as much as 200 million yuan, which roughly translates to 28,664,380 US dollars. Given that this patent infringement is a major one for Intel, it is sure that a company will be pursued extensively in court. All of the Intel's semiconductors use FinFET technology, and if this is true, the violation is rather big. For more in detail reading, please refer to the source which goes through the history of Intel and Microelectronics Institute patent violation filing.


View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[steve360]

Heh, the Chinese accusing 'Murica of being dodgy with intellectual property.

Trust the Chinese to respect international law and regulations...when it's convenient for them.

 

[OneMoar]

yea no this is one case where intel should tell them to fuck off

FinFet is a broad term of a wide variety of field-effect transistor's samsung/apple/amd all use variations of the design
field-effect transistor's have been in development since the late 90's and intel owns the patent on the tri-gate design they use

 

[xenocide]

This is garbage. For starters, the source is a poorly written--and at times incomprehensible--tech blog from the fringes of the internet, and you're telling me Intel somehow stole this tech, designed, manufactured, and sold the Intel Core CPU's in the same year? It takes 2-3 years from initial design to actual retail sales. There's no way this patent would hold up to actual scrutiny. It's very clearly a case of a Chinese institution learning of a technology and immediately patenting it in their country to try and extort foreign competitors further down the line. What even is the Microelectronics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences? Have the manufactured a single FinFET device? I highly doubt it.

 

[lexluthermiester]

China accusing Intel of IP theft? I read, paused to let it sink in and then laughed for a solid 20 seconds. China, when you respect OUR patents and copyrights, you can ask(nicely) us to do the same. Until then, STHU.

 

[Verpal]

Whilst I don't encourage IP infringement at all, hearing China, of all country, accusing other of stealing IP makes me giggle.

 

[blobster21]

@AleksandarK : it was meant as a joke isn't it ?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Whilst I don't encourage IP infringement at all, hearing China, of all country, accusing other of stealing IP makes me giggle.

Right!

 

[_Flare]

if THAT is true ... OMG

 

[Vya Domus]

Whatever they infringed on, it's not even working that well. Maybe that's why 10nm was so bad, mystery solved.

Even China's patents are of poor quality it seems.

 

[watzupken]

I think its funny that China generally don't bother about infringing on others' IP, but now pursuing a case against Intel for IP infringement.

 

[dorsetknob]

where are they Sueing............ East Texas ? ( where they lose big time ) or are they going for home ( and very biased ) advantage.

 

[terroralpha]

What even is the Microelectronics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences?

it's an actual academy with like 50k researchers, and is considered a legit research facility that actually makes real science developments. they have done a lot of good work.

having said that, they can go f**k themselves with a rusted machete. this is china trying to retaliate in the trade war, but they are doing it in the dumbest way possible.

where are they Sueing............ East Texas ? ( where they lose big time ) or are they going for home ( and very biased ) advantage.

it's a chinese patent so it has to be pursued in a chinese court. the reverse would happen if it was an american patent.

 

[lexluthermiester]

this is china trying to retaliate in the trade war, but they are doing it int the dumbest way possible.

Agreed! This effort is weak and will very likely fail on merit alone.

 

[LemmingOverlord]

There have been a number of moves lately that give me pause for thought. The same way China is getting aggressive in its geopolitics, it's also getting aggressive with their technology roadmap. And by "aggressive" I mean taking by force.

However, this has the potential to seriously backfire. Intel is vulnerable (and God knows how much it relies on Chinese customers, right now), but the US could easily retaliate with an export ban and no Intel x86 would be sold in China.

China is a cesspool of copyright infringement, it's been doing this for decades and getting away with it. Unfortunately, profits and turnover speak louder than anything else, right now.

 

[geon2k2]

You guys cannot even conceive that out of 1.3 billion people there are some smart researchers.

To me it just seems plausible that the Chinese invented some things and it also seems plausible that some US companies might infringe on other people IP.
Not a big deal after all, this happens all the time, the patent library is huge, and some tech even if its been developed in house, might turn later on to be patented by somebody earlier.
Even if it is true, 30 mil for Intel is just dust from the bottom of the pockets.

 

[Totally]

yea no this is one case where intel should tell them to fuck off

FinFet is a broad term of a wide variety of field-effect transistor's samsung/apple/amd all use variations of the design
field-effect transistor's have been in development since the late 90's and intel owns the patent on the tri-gate design they use

but therein lies the problem. Foreign companies are sluts for China monies that they just complain with no follow up rather than jeopardize their access to the Chinese market.

 

[lexluthermiester]

You guys cannot even conceive that out of 1.3 billion people there are some smart researchers.

No one said there wasn't.

To me it just seems plausible that the Chinese invented some things and it also seems plausible that some US companies might infringe on other people IP.

Except that Intel R&D'ed, engineered and used their FinFET process before the 2011 timeframe MICAS claims. Their claim is without merit.

 

[trparky]

China? You're talking about someone infringing on your patents? Please, give me a moment... I need to do something first before we talk about this further.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough* *wheeze* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *snort*

Now, where were we again? I was laughing too hard.

 

[Ashtr1x]

Nuke that Dailan factory and get it back to U.S Intel else your 3DXPoint is going to get cloned. What is this ? A big fat joke, Chinese accusing of IP theft. Biggest BS, they stole not just Semi tech. They cloned the military tech from Russia and claim they built better engines and better tanks. They copied German Maglev technology. This CCP has no respect, clone the tech use police force worse than KGB, Gestapo on their citizens. And they also funded that AMD's Chinese investments to make their Zen go to that Hygon and eventually make a processor with the stolen technology from AMD and who approved it ? US DoD approved it in 2015, the government and adminstration didn't do anything. If that was still continouing, Qualcomm would have been sold to Avago/Broadcom as well and Apple would have gained larger share of the IP. Just a matter of time, Huawei already got the 7nm Kunpeng 920 processor and x86 based stolen tech also will come, since it's a minefield right now where Intel/AMD control it and has some higher repercussions they are just waiting. They probably already use the improved internally. Thankfully TSMC and Taiwan realized along with US Govt and made moves to block that Huawei PLA corp to run rampant.

A shame that all of America allowed this to happen, the greedy Investors wanted only money and profits at the expense of the manufacturing in homeland. That ruined Japan and other nations & now everyone is reliant on China heavily, they stole all the tech nothing just happens all companies simply continue doing the same crap again. Huawei, BBK they are nobodies after all those Foxconn, Pegatron and other iPhone manufacturing facilities they quickly learnt how to do it and now Huawei sits on #1, Oppo and Xiaomi sit below Samsung and Apple. That SMIC is also going to start up soon, they already have stolen enough from Micron (YMTC says thanks) as well. Not just that, Tencent is ever growing and increasing it's grip across the world, EGS, Nexon, Hollywood, Reddit, Blizzard/Activision what not and we have people who love TikTok and support CCP heavily. Esp Apple bending everything for that money, allowing CCP to take over their precious "Privacy" iCloud data and block everything as dictated instead to just stop doing business, but it's It's just going to get worse, a shame that people are still fine even after that WHO debacle.

 

[R0H1T]

the US could easily retaliate with an export ban and no Intel x86 would be sold in China.

Nope won't happen, China is for better or worse as of now the single biggest (growing) market for servers, date centers, HPC, consumer arena ~ you name it & they're at or near the top! If you thought nCoV was bad, think what a blanket ban on China would do to Intel, AMD, ARM et al.

So yeah ain't gonna happen.

 

[windwhirl]

China? You're talking about someone infringing on your patents? Please, give me a moment... I need to do something first before we talk about this further.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough* *wheeze* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *snort*

Now, where were we again? I was laughing too hard.

Want a handkerchief for those tears of laughter?

Nope won't happen, China is for better or worse as of now the single biggest (growing) market for servers, date centers, HPC, consumer arena ~ you name it & they're at or near the top! If you thought nCoV was bad, think what a blanket ban on China would do to Intel, AMD, ARM et al.

So yeah ain't gonna happen.

And there is also the fact that whatever Intel, AMD, et al have in China (fabs, staff, the whole supply and production chain, etc) or pretty much anywhere else where China has significant political influence, would have to be replicated somewhere else. That takes at least a few years, even if they're very diligent about it and willing to spend real big money for that.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

This is the definition of irony.

 

[dorsetknob]

Its State sponsored Corporate Ransomware

( if Intel had infringed patents then China might Ban the importation of infringing items).

 

[Easo]

Is it impossible? No, Intel could have done that.
Is it likely? Well... we are talking about the biggest patent infringer in the world, China...