Global Foundries seeks to ban US import of TSMC clients' products

Global Foundries has sued larger rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing for patent infringement

SHANGHAI: Contract chip-maker Global Foundries has sued larger rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co for patent infringement, seeking to stop the defendant’s customers including Apple from importing affected products to the United States and Germany.

In lawsuits filed on Monday in the United States and Germany, Global Foundries also sought unspecified “significant” damages from TSMC based on the Taiwanese firm’s unlawful use of its technology in its “tens of billions of dollars of sales.”
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The complaints alleged that chip manufacturing technologies used by TSMC infringed Global Foundries’ 16 patents, and sought to prevent imports of products containing chips produced with the infringing technologies, the Santa Clara, California-based firm said in a statement.

It did not elaborate on products affected by the infringement, but listed Apple, Qualcomm, Alphabet's Google, Nvidia), Lenovo and Taiwan’ MediaTek among TSMC’s customers affected by the complaints.

TSMC was not immediately available for comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Its other clients also were not immediately available for comment.

In a move to highlight its investment in the United States amid an intensifying US trade war with China over Beijing’s unfair practices involving technology transfers and intellectual property, Global Foundries also said the lawsuits are aimed at protecting its US investment.

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“While semiconductor manufacturing has continued to shift to Asia, Global Foundries has bucked the trend by investing heavily in the American and European semiconductor industries,”

Global Foundries, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s state investment vehicle, said.

“This action is critical ... to safeguard the American and European manufacturing base.”