Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest computer memory chipmaker, yesterday won a patent case against US chip company LSI Corp after the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that the Taiwanese chipmaker did not infringe on LSI’s intellectual property rights.
The commission said in the final determination that claims leveled by LSI against Nanya Technology and other companies, including Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), were invalid and no violation was found, the company said in a statement yesterday.
“We are pleased with the final determination of this ITC action. Nanya Technology has always respected intellectual property,” company spokesman Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) said in the statement.
Shares of Nanya Technology climbed 1.13 percent to close at NT$31.30, down from a previous rally in the early session. That beat the benchmark TAIEX, which closed down 0.31 percent.
The Taoyuan-based chipmaker announced the favorable result before the local stock market opened.
The stock price of local competitors Powerchip and ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) — another local chipmaker sued by LSI — rose 1.63 percent and 1.01 percent to NT$4.84 and NT$2.01 respectively yesterday.
DARMeXchange Technology Inc (集邦科技) said on Monday that contract prices would be flat in the last two weeks of this month from two weeks ago, with the mainstream chip price at US$2.31 per unit.
The Taipei-based market researcher expected DRAM makers to begin entering a three-year upcycle, or profitable period, as chipmakers were slow in adding new capacity to match demand boosted by PC replacement following the sales of Microsoft Corp’s new Windows 7 system.
This year, global DRAM chipmakers are expected to spend US$8.36 billion on new equipment. That would mean a 93 percent increase from last year’s historical low of US$4.34 billion, but would still be low compared with the US$12.25 billion spent in 2008 and US$21.44 billion in 2007.
In other developments, Infineon AG’s patent-infringement complaint seeking to block US imports of computer-memory chips by Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc will be investigated by the ITC.
The Washington-based agency said on Monday it would consider the complaint filed last month and decide whether to ban the imports. Infineon, Europe’s second-largest chipmaker, claimed that Elpida infringes on four patents related to DRAM chips.
In addition to Tokyo-based Elpida, the complaint also names Kingston Technology Co of Fountain Valley, California; Taiwanese memory module suppliers A-Data Technology Co (威剛), Apacer Technology Inc (宇瞻) and Transcend Information Inc (創見); Buffalo Technology Inc of Nagoya, Japan, and Austin, Texas; Corsair Memory of Fremont, California; and Mushkin Inc of Englewood, Colorado, the ITC said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY BLOOMBERG
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