Saturday, October 24, 2009
Symbolic of the two country’s relationship, Taiwanese and Chinese based companies are bitterly fighting—in an Oakland Superior Court—over a 2005 settlement involving patented technology in the U.S.. The Taipei-based semiconductor company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), charged its rival Chinese company, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) of reneging on a 2005 settlement over stolen technology. The settlement stated SMIC must place any documents relating to TSMC into a document bank, essentially removing them from SMIC’s possession.
However, this 2005 settlement did not resolve the dispute, instead it led to harsh opening statements from both companies. According to TSMC, Shanghai-based SMICstill possessed stolen documents, doing so bysimply renamingthe files instead of transferring them to a document bank. In response, SMIC countered by declaring that TSMC did not settle the disagreements in “good faith,” a requirement in the 2005 settlement that called for a third party to resolve the issues. They also intend to prove that the stolen documents were actually accessible to the industry’s published literature.
Emotions flared during the cross examinations of two witnesses. Anne Chen, SMIC lawyer and corporate secretary, responded to the interrogation by accusing TSMC lawyers of “putting words in our mouths and distorting what we say.” TSMC called an expert witness, Richard Fair, a Duke professor with experience of semiconductor technology, to testify over whether or not SMIC copied TSMC technology. He said the technology showed undeniable evidence that SMIC used exact copies of TSMC technology. However, SMIC challenged his impartiality by getting Fair to admit that he had earned $500,000 from TSMC for his analysis of the semiconductor technology.
-Justin Tang
TSMC vs. SMIC Trial Commences in Oakland (David Lammers, Semiconductor International)
China vs Taiwan in US Court (Bruce Einhorn, BusinessWeek)
TSMC vs. SMIC Trade Secrets Theft Trial Grinds On (by Alexander E. Braun, Semiconductor International)
TSMC vs. SMIC Trade Secrets Trial Heats Up (David Lammers, Semiconductor International)
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