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GlobalFoundries Files Patent Claims Against TSMC, Seeks to Ban Imports of Nvidia, Apple Chips
GlobalFoundries (GF) today announced that it filed lawsuits against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in the U.S. and Germany over the alleged infringement of 16 patents. The company said that it's looking to halt the import of processors made with the technologies and is seeking "significant damages from TSMC based on TSMC's unlawful use of GF's proprietary technology in its tens of billions of dollars of sales." Impacted companies include Nvidia and Apple.
Note that GlobalFoundries said it wants to stop the import of processors made with the technologies it believes are covered by its patents. The company recognized that TSMC doesn't usually import those processors into the U.S. or Germany; TSMC's customers do. That means the lawsuits could affect much of the tech industry: TSMC said that in 2018 it was "manufacturing 10,436 different products using 261 distinct technologies for 481 different customers."
The list of companies supplied by TSMC includes AMD, Nvidia, Apple, Mediatek and many others, which means that GlobalFoundries could bring the tech industry to a halt if it's allowed to stop imports to the U.S. and Germany.
If you can't beat 'em, sue 'em.
Also at Wccftech.
Related: GlobalFoundries Abandons "7nm LP" Node, TSMC and Samsung to Pick Up the Slack
GlobalFoundries Spins Off ASIC Solutions Division, Creating a New Subsidiary: Avera Semiconductor
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:01AM (7 children)
How do you reconcile "list of companies provided by TSMC" with "TSMC hasn't publicly commented on GlobalFoundries' lawsuits at the time of writing"? AMD is not a target of this lawsuit, in fact it looks like they are one of the only TSMC customers not affected.
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:26AM (1 child)
AMD, Nvidia, Apple, and Mediatek are companies supplied by TSMC. TSMC is being targeted by GlobalFoundries. Even if AMD chips aren't part of any import ban being sought, AMD's main supplier could be hurt by this lawsuit. It could affect TSMC's competitiveness and AMD's choices going forward (they were supposed to ditch GloFo once they shrink the I/O die). Worst case scenario for TSMC, AMD switches to Samsung.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:59AM
Sure, blocking the sale, or at least increasing the cost of, nvidia gpus is likely to really hurt AMD.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:36AM (4 children)
Are you really so thick or it's fake thick? Really, it's not so complicated to understand.
1.- AMD is currently GlobalFoundries' client for "some chips"
2.- TSMC is [AMD's] primary source of manufacturing for "new chips" using claimed infringing patents.
3.- [Despite AMD] not being listed in the complaint, surely because they are also GF's client, obviously due to [2] AMD's "new chips" are affected by TSMC's infringing GF patents.
4.- AMD as client of GF may or may not cut a deal with GF to avoid "trouble" with such claimed infringed patents for "new chips" even if AMD's "some chips" manufactured by GF are not affected.
TL;DR: Some new AMD chips are affected by the infringing patents.but others not.
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:50AM (1 child)
That AC seems... "invested" in this news.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:01AM
Just pointing out fake news, amazing that people can be told point blank what is going on but prefer to live in denial. I mean I would obviously prefer for AMDs stock to do down over this to buy more. Nothing said here is going to affect the stock price though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:54AM
No, they aren't. At least there is no evidence this is the case. Actually there is a distinct lack of such evidence in what we have seen about this lawsuit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @07:35AM
Just speculating without evidence here, but it is possible AMD retains some patent license from before GF was spun off, and so the chips manufactured for AMD are non-infringing.