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Globalfoundries Files Patent-infringement Lawsuits Against TSMC in the U.S. and Germany

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GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF), the world's leading specialty foundry based in the United States, today filed multiple lawsuits in the U.S. and Germany alleging that semiconductor manufacturing technologies used by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) infringe 16 GF patents. The lawsuits were filed today in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. Federal District Courts in the Districts of Delaware and the Western District of Texas, and the Regional Courts of Dusseldorf and Mannheim in Germany.

In filing the lawsuits, GF seeks orders that will prevent semiconductors produced with the infringing technology by Taiwan-based TSMC, the dominant semiconductor manufacturer, from being imported into the U.S. and Germany. These lawsuits require GF to name certain major customers of TSMC and downstream electronics companies, who, in most cases, are the actual importers of the products that incorporate the infringing TSMC technology. GF also seeks significant damages from TSMC based on TSMC's unlawful use of GF's proprietary technology in its tens of billions of dollars of sales.

"While semiconductor manufacturing has continued to shift to Asia, GF has bucked the trend by investing heavily in the American and European semiconductor industries, spending more than $15 billion dollars in the last decade in the U.S. and more than $6 billion in Europe's largest semiconductor manufacturing fabrication facility. These lawsuits are aimed at protecting those investments and the US and European-based innovation that powers them," said Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president, engineering and technology at GF. "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."

GF is filing these lawsuits to protect its investments, assets and intellectual property, which will help to ensure that semiconductor manufacturing remains a competitive industry for the benefit of its clients.

The fact-sheet of these lawsuits can be accessed here (PDF).

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Zen 2 manufacturer(s)
TSMC (core die)
Global Foundries (I/O die)

Yeah nice. What are they thinking.
 
Zen 2 manufacturer(s)
TSMC (core die)
Global Foundries (I/O die)

Yeah nice. What are they thinking.
Basically a failing company trying to patent troll the successful competitor to get some quick cash.
I bet they are hoping TSMC will settle the case.
I find it funny that they gave up their "promising" 7nm tech because they assume not enough demand and sue TSMC that actually brings products to the market.
If their 7nm was indeed as good as they throught, they wouldn't be lacking business :roll:
 
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Patent trolling at its finest.
 
It is more the usual from GlobalFoundries.

From 2017/2018;
1st/2nd -- US/EU -> Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has been accused of imposing abusive contractual terms for the supply of semiconductors, it is understood. The European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission have contacted semiconductor customers to explore the allegations.
^-- GlobalFoundries is the accuser.

3rd -- China -> GlobalFoundries, the second-largest contract chipmaker in the world, has asked Chinese regulators to probe market leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for violating antitrust laws, said two industry sources familiar with the matter.


TSMC stole our customers! Then, TSMC is stealing our IP!
 
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They wont win this and if they do, US patent system is rotten to the core.
 
Zen 2 manufacturer(s)
TSMC (core die)
Global Foundries (I/O die)

Yeah nice. What are they thinking.
If you took the time to check the pdf you would have seen that the involved companies are Apple, Qualcom, Cisco, nVidia and some other... but not AMD.
 
Low quality post by ProPain
GlobalFoundries (also known as GloFo) is an 100% Spin-Off .... of AMD !!!

GlobalFoundries was created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on March 2, 2009.

>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalFoundries

Hopefully GloFo will sue AMD & TSMC 7nm Ryzen & EPYC Processor Production with another big Class Action Lawsuits .... like this one

AMD lost - class action lawsuit - AMD Inks $12.1M Deal In Computer Chip False Ad Row
>>> https://www.law360.com/consumerprot...inks-12-1m-deal-in-computer-chip-false-ad-row

AMD Inks $12.1M Deal In Computer Chip False Ad Row Law360 (August 26, 2019, 3:44 PM EDT) --

Consumers who say Advanced Micro Devices falsely advertised certain computer chips as (AMD Bulldozer FX 8-Core CPU) having eight "cores" when the products actually had fewer told a California federal court on Friday that they have inked a proposed $12. 1 million settlement deal with the multinational semiconductor giant AMD . The consumers said the settlement, reached after almost four years of litigation, marks an excellent result for the case. At trial, the consumers' best-case scenario would have been a verdict of about $60 million, so the value of the $12. 1 million proposed deal represents more than 20% of the maximum they could have obtained at trial, the consumers said ....

Upcoming .... AMD Class Action Lawsuits .... flase AMD Ryzen BoostClock Marketing - up to 4,75 GHz Class Action Lawsuits :

>>> https://respawnfirst.com/intel-amd-false-marketing-boost-clocks/
>>> https://wccftech.com/fake-amd-ryzen-2800x-12-core-5-1ghz-slide-sends-media-frenzy/

 

Attachments

  • AMD Ryzen - up to 4,75 GHz Boost Clock Marketing.png
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Low quality post by ProPain
Big Companys like AMD sould learn from there mistakes .... otherwise CLASS ACTION LAWSUITES are a good reminder for them !!!

TSMC - As expected, TSMC rejected the allegations via press release.

>>> https://www.tsmc.com/tsmcdotcom/PRListingNewsAction.do?action=detail&language=E&newsid=THPGSTTHTH

"TSMC is in the process of reviewing the complaints filed by GlobalFoundries on August 26, but is confident that GlobalFoundries’ allegations are baseless. As a leading innovator, TSMC invests billions of dollars each year to independently develop its world-class, leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing technologies. As a result, TSMC has established one of the largest semiconductor portfolios with more than 37,000 patents worldwide and a top 10 ranking for US patent grants for 3 consecutive years since 2016. We are disappointed to see a foundry peer resort to meritless lawsuits instead of competing in the marketplace with technology. TSMC is proud of its technology leadership, manufacturing excellence, and unwavering commitment to customers. We will fight vigorously, using any and all options, to protect our proprietary technologies."

GloFo sould sue now .... Advanced Micro Devices .... AMD is Next - 100% Agree !
 
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I want to see GloFo crash and burn honestly, they're one of the reasons why hardware from AMD, especially videocards sucked these latest years. Seriously, i hope they fail totally, close down and disappear forever.
 
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Low quality post by ProPain
Fiji (Overclockers Dream) .... was designed by AMD
Polaris (2x RX480 faster than Geforce GTX 1080) .... was designed by AMD
HBM2 Vega & Rebrandeon VII .... was designed by AMD
Navi (without DXR Support) .... was designed by AMD

GloFo is a 100% AMD Spin-Off .... and the No.1 AMD Partner for Years - GloFo is totaly "innocent" - ask Raja Koduri @ INTEL

Patent infringements are patent infringements if they prove to be true. The fact that GloFo is now working on it may well be due to the economic situation.
Who gives away licensing fees to well-running companies, while you are bad?

LisaSu Agrees

Globalfoundries should stop all 7nm TSMC Products WORLDWIDE - TODAY !!!
(including AMD Ryzen 1000, 2000 & 3000 Series, all Threadripper und upcoming TR Zen2, EPIC ROME Release .... and of corse AMD Navi @ 7nm)
 
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Patent trolling at its finest.
They wont win this and if they do, US patent system is rotten to the core.
When I saw U.S. Federal District Courts in the Districts of Delaware and Western District of Texas it was pretty obvious.

Delaware: https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/06/13/patent-litigation-shows-shift-towards-delaware/id=98060/
Texas: https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2019/02/18/newest-patent-rocket-docket-waco-texas/id=106453/

And more info on the why: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/patent-cases-in-east-texas-plunge-more-than-60-percent/
 
Waco is more centalized than west lol
 
Why is Nvidia even mentioned? And they conveniently left out AMD in the suit. Looks like a coordinated attack on TSMC based on AMD’s knowledge of the company.:roll:
 
Patent infringements, haven't heard from RAMBUS in a while now.
Globalfoundries stopped their 7nm node. But was it a EUV node or not?
I am quite sure they are working on the next node already.

I stand corrected. They changed their strategy to go with 14nm / 12nm and switch to things like stacking.

And when i think a little more about it, they will probably go the same way as Matrox or PowerVR. They will be there, but they won't be a big player any more.
 
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Why is Nvidia even mentioned? And they conveniently left out AMD in the suit. Looks like a coordinated attack on TSMC based on AMD’s knowledge of the company.:roll:

Now why in the world would AMD have any part in going after their manufacturer? My guess is that AMD isn't on the list, because they still make chips at GloFo or because they already settled with GloFo.
 
Anandtech just listed links to each patent here


seams extraordinary to me that other companies are not listed , Intel for one.

If you go through the patents, some seam quite,, no all seam quite fundamental, some possibly to ANY node size.

There are several possible reasons that other companies are not listed, Intel for one...

1. Intel's process may not infringe on any of these patents.

2. There may be a cross licensing deal in place between GloFo and Intel already and there isn't one with TSMC.

3. GloFo may have decided to target TSMC first before they go after the 800lbs. gorillas that are Intel and Samsung.

This is a very interesting suit in that they are suing TSMC due to infringement and only asking that some chips or devices are stopped from coming into the US, not all. From reading comments on other sights, the most common suspicion is that GloFo is close to going under and or desperate and has decided to use it's patents to try and make money.
 
TSMC vs GloFo
china vs US
cheap china labour vs expensive us labour
7nm vs 12nm

this shows what will happen to US if they mvoe everything to US..
development will slowdown, cost of manufacturing will be very higher

i dont think TSMC,apple,qualcomm,nvidia will let Glofo win....
 
TSMC vs GloFo
china vs US
cheap china labour vs expensive us labour
7nm vs 12nm

this shows what will happen to US if they mvoe everything to US..
development will slowdown, cost of manufacturing will be very higher

i dont think TSMC,apple,qualcomm,nvidia will let Glofo win....

RoC not proc
 
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