Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest custom-chip maker, won a jury verdict that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際) had improperly used its trade secrets and breached a US$175 million settlement.
TSMC’s US unit accused its rival, China’s biggest chipmaker, of causing more than US$1 billion in damages by using 65 of its trade secrets and breaching a 2005 agreement, Jeffrey Chanin, an attorney for the Hsinchu-based company, said in an interview.
That agreement resolved claims that SMIC had earlier infringed trade secrets for chip-making processes, Chanin said.
A state court jury in Oakland, California, on Tuesday found that SMIC improperly used most of the 65 trade secrets and violated the deal starting in February 2005, a jury verdict form supplied by Chanin showed.
TSMC is seeking payment for lost profits on US sales since about 2002 and unjust enrichment on SMIC sales of chips that infringe on its trade secrets, Chanin said. The jury will decide how much damages should be paid after hearing evidence from both sides starting today, he said.
The ruling won’t change the “status quo” in the industry given TSMC’s size, said Sophie Chuang (莊孟紓), an analyst at SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券), who rates the stock “hold.”
“Semiconductor Manufacturing isn’t a big player,” she said.
TSMC, which commands more than half of the custom chipmaking market, rose 0.7 percent to close at NT$59.60 in Taipei trading.
SMIC shares, which were suspended in Hong Kong on Wednesday, fell 2.6 percent to HK$0.38 on Tuesday.
SMIC, based in Shanghai, denied wrongdoing and said TSMC breached its agreement to negotiate disputes over the settlement and sued to stifle competition, court filings in Oakland show.
“We’re disappointed,” Matthew Szymanski, Shanghai-based vice president of corporate relations at SMIC, said in a phone interview yesterday.
“There are many appealable issues and we’re considering all of our options,” he said.
TSMC spokesman Tzeng Jin-hao (曾晉皓) acknowledged the verdict yesterday.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
RSS