As US-China trade wars go in full swing, it looks like companies are also looking to join in.
Semiconductor manufacturer Global Foundries(GF) has sued its bigger Taiwanese rival TSMC over alleged infringement of 16 patents as the latter used GloFo’s proprietary technology in their products imported to US and Germany, where GloFo claims to have invested upwards of $21 billion over several years.
Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president, engineering and technology at GF, has said that these lawsuits are important so as to promote healthy competition in the industry.
For years, while we have been devoting billions of dollars to domestic research and development, TSMC has been unlawfully reaping the benefits of our investments. This action is critical to halt Taiwan Semiconductor’s unlawful use of our vital assets and to safeguard the American and European manufacturing base.
Gregg Bartlett, SVP, Engineering & Technology, Global Foundries
TSMC has refused to acknowledge any such allegations calling them “baseless” but added that they would fight tooth and nail to protect its own IPs.
We are disappointed to see a foundry peer resort to meritless lawsuits instead of competing in the marketplace with technology….
TSMC could be right to allege that GloFo is only doing so out of desperation. For some time now, GloFo has been falling behind, failing to compete and even canned their 7nm process while their rival is making their way down to 5nm with no stopping.
The Taiwanese giant is expecting to post an 18% sequential increase in its 3Q19 revenues.