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Mosaid sues chipmakers

Mosaid Technologies Inc, a Canadian semiconductor design firm, announced a court action against Micron Technology Inc and two Taiwanese companies on Tuesday, accusing them of infringing patents on computer-memory chips.

The complaint against Micron, the biggest US maker of memory chips, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Taiwan's largest memory chipmaker, and ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the country's third-largest chipmaker, was filed on Tuesday in federal court in Marshall, Texas.

Powerchip had not yet received notification of the lawsuit, company spokesman Eric Tan (譚仲民) told the Taipei Times in a phone interview.

Tan added that the complaint would not have any negative impact on Powerchip's business, as it does not sell its chips on the US market, Tan said.

Powerchip reported on Monday that it had almost quadrupled net income for the second quarter to NT$3.18 billion (US$96.79 million), or NT$0.58 per share from a year earlier, on significant growth in output and further cost reduction.

ProMOS, which has intellectual property exchange agreements with both Mosaid and Micron, also had not received any notice about the lawsuit and was attempting to investigate the matter, according to a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

Company spokesman Ben Tseng (曾邦助) declined to comment on the litigation.

The company posted a 47 percent growth in revenues to NT$11.65 billion for the second quarter, compared with NT$7.91 billion in the first quarter.

Impacted by the news, shares of Powerchip fell 1.81 percent to NT$21.70 and ProMOS declined 1.66 percent to NT$11.85 yesterday.

The suit came a day after Micron sued to challenge patents owned by Mosaid for dynamic random access memory chips (DRAM) through which computers and other electronic devices store and access information. Mosaid, based in Ottawa, contends it owns patents on key parts of DRAM technology.

"We're confident that we have strong patents and our objective is to sign a license," Michael Salter, a spokesman for Mosaid, said in a telephone interview.

Mosaid's complaint claims infringement of nine patents. Seven are being challenged by Boise, Idaho-based Micron.

Mosaid's license agreements with 15 companies, including Samsung Electronics Co and Infineon Technologies AG, won't be affected if some patents are invalidated, Salter said.

Fourteen companies had been put "on notice" by Mosaid that they were infringing, he said.
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