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China The Courts Patents Hardware Technology

Micron Chip Sales Banned In China On Patent Case (bloomberg.com) 74

A Chinese court temporarily banned Micron Technology chip sales, cutting the U.S. company off from the world's largest semiconductor market. The news comes from Taiwanese rival United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC). Bloomberg reports: In a patent ruling in favor of UMC, the Fuzhou Intermediate Peopleâ(TM)s Court of the Peopleâ(TM)s Republic of China issued a preliminary injunction stopping Micron from selling 26 products, including dynamic random access memory and Nand flash memory-related products, UMC said in a statement Tuesday. Micron said it hasnâ(TM)t been served with the injunction and wonâ(TM)t comment until it does.

The case is part of a broader dispute between the two companies centering on accusations that UMC acted as a conduit for the theft of Micronâ(TM)s designs in an attempt to help China grow its domestic chip industry and replace imports that rival oil in total value. A Chinese antitrust regulator is already investigating Micron and its Korean rivals, the companies have said. Local media has reported that authorities are looking into increases in chip prices.

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Micron Chip Sales Banned In China On Patent Case

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  • And this... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by GerryGilmore ( 663905 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @06:24PM (#56889118)
    ...is exactly why - in the same way that a broken clock is right twice a day - Trump is correct to start tightening the screws on China.
    Granted, it's about 30 years too late, but....
    • You are surprised? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by thesupraman ( 179040 )

      You mean their reaction to the US banning chip supplies to ZTE by banning chip imports from Micron is... what... surprising? unexpected?

      If you want to be the playground bully, it pays to make sure you can hold that position...

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Trump wants to be the bully but has no idea what it means, can't hold the position, and is picking the fights with our ALLIES first...

        • The USA has always treated its allies with contempt.
          • by Jane Q. Public ( 1010737 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @07:42PM (#56889470)
            China is not an ally.

            And ZTE was caught spying on both government and private owners of their products.
            • The UK is, Australia is, New Zealand is, the EU is Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
            • China is not an ally. And ZTE was caught spying on both government and private owners of their products.

              Wow - where you been keeping yourself, Jane?. I havent seen a post from you in a long time.

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              None of that changes the fact that tariffs are hurting the US, particularly smaller companies that actually try to make stuff there instead of outsourcing to China. It's ironic that the ones now suffering from component shortages and higher material costs are the ones providing jobs to Americans, while the people who already moved manufacturing to China are much less affected.

              These are the US tariffs on electronic components, by the way, not the retaliatory ones from China. The pain from the Chinese ones wi

              • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

                None of that changes the fact that tariffs are hurting the US, particularly smaller companies that actually try to make stuff there instead of outsourcing to China. It's ironic that the ones now suffering from component shortages and higher material costs are the ones providing jobs to Americans, while the people who already moved manufacturing to China are much less affected.

                These are the US tariffs on electronic components, by the way, not the retaliatory ones from China. The pain from the Chinese ones wi

      • by Anonymous Coward

        No, this is a standard protectionist MO from China. They have done this at least 4 times to micron in the last decade. I know you hate trump, but get your head putt off your ass.

      • by sd4f ( 1891894 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @08:26PM (#56889648)

        I think this is something that will only get worse as time goes on, in that, if the USA (I've never been in the states btw, I'm Australian) wants to maintain it's global economic position (in your terms, the playground bully, and more formally speaking [and probably ironically too], maintain the pax americana), it needs to start acting against China strategically. The problem with acting now is, the USA might not be in its ideal position to do so, but I think it will only get worse for the USA as time goes on, as China isn't sitting idly; it's growing and establishing its foothold.

        Now, while I'm not infatuated with the USA, I'm concerned far more by China's political interference in oceania, and their general subversive nature of establishing their own hegemony. I'm inclined to side on the countries which, at least nominally, share our values of personal liberty, democracy, and a rule of law, which arguably places most above that of China. Despite our flaws, we're still much better than a regime which denies those freedoms, and champions the idea that people are too stupid to rule them selves, therefore they must be lorded over by the select few.

        Another point to consider is that the Chinese have a chip on their shoulder that westerners have been exploiting them, and that has been stymieing their development. Their concept of face means that they're proud and arrogant, to their own detriment, to the degree that they'd rather go down with the ship than change course if it means admitting they were/are wrong, or that systems of governance that encourage skulduggery, corruption, and self interest, over talent and merit, has been holding them back.

        From a trade perspective, I've noticed a growing sentiment amongst Chinese that they're starting to feel superior. They feel that where once their stuff wasn't taken all that seriously, it is significantly not the case now, and relating to their concept of sociological face, while they grow with the idea that they are superior, it is us who should be grateful that they trade with us, and we need them, and not they need us. This is definitely becoming the case in Australia, where we're so exposed to China, that if they stop buying our resources, we have problems, if we stop selling residential property to them, we have problems, if we try to stop them donating money/buying our politicians, we have problems! [abc.net.au] They have us where they want us; we're reliant on their money, they're not reliant on our resources.

    • Actually, Trump has it backwards [theatlantic.com].

  • Taiwan should do what China did. Just make a massive donation to a planned Indonesian theme park, golf course, whatever.... just make sure the project has financial links to Trump and he'll sort out export/import bans like he did with ZTE.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Five, count 'em, five â(TM)s in the summery. I wonder what the record is?
  • That's pretty much what they do [battleswarmblog.com]. They're retaliating against Micron because they got caught red-handed stealing their designs from UMC in Taiwan [nytimes.com].

    The irony is that China has no domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturers worth speaking of, so they'll still need to buy the equipment from American and Japanese firms like Applied Materials, LAM Research, and Tokyo Electron. Plus they're having extreme difficulty finding qualified semiconductor process engineers willing to move to China.

    Plus they stole it for a fab that's still under production, so by the time they are producing chips using the stolen designs, Micron will probably already be fabbing their next design turn/feature shrink...

    • China has no domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturers worth speaking of, so they'll still need to buy the equipment from American and Japanese firms like Applied Materials, LAM Research, and Tokyo Electron

      Stop selling China equipment that enable them to produce chips.

      China *does have* domestic equipment makers, but the machines they produce is so lousy, even the Chinese semiconductor process engineers are avoiding those machines like a plaque .

      If we stop selling the equipment to them, the Chinese have to rely on the 2nd hand market --- which means, they will be getting really antiquated technologies, at least 5 years old, (40nm node and up) which isn't going to help them.

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