Elpida Sues Infineon in Escalating Fight Over Chips (Update1)
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By Susan Decker
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Elpida Memory Inc., Japan’s biggest maker of computer-memory chips, filed two patent-infringement lawsuits in the U.S. against Infineon Technologies AG in an escalating battle over semiconductor technology.
In one complaint, Tokyo-based Elpida claims Infineon is infringing three U.S. patents related to microcontrollers used in mobile phones, including ones Infineon makes for Apple Inc.’s iPhone. A second complaint cites Infineon microcontrollers used in auto components, Elpida lawyer Roger Taylor said in a telephone interview today.
Infineon has “refused to take a license for the infringing Infineon microcontrollers,” Elpida said in the mobile-phone complaint. The company is selling the microcontrollers “in reckless disregard of Elpida’s patent rights.”
Microcontrollers combine the processing unit and memory on one integrated circuit. Infineon has a pending patent- infringement case against Elpida with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, seeking to block imports of products that include Elpida’s dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips, which act as the main memory in computers.
The complaint over the mobile phones also names Best Buy Co., which sells products that use Infineon microprocessors. The complaints seek cash compensation and a court order preventing further use of the Elpida inventions.
Top DRAM Supplier
Neubiberg, Germany-based Infineon is Europe’s second- biggest chipmaker behind STMicroelectronics NV. Officials with the company in the U.S. didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.
In February, Infineon said it was filing its patent claims against Elpida because of the Japanese company’s vow to become the top DRAM supplier in the world. It accused Elpida of seeking to fulfill that pledge using Infineon technology.
The global market for DRAM chips is expected to surge by more than 40 percent this year to $31.9 billion as prices rise and demand for personal computers recovers, research firm ISuppli Corp. said in February.
The mobile-phone chip case is Elpida Memory Inc. v. Infineon Technologies AG, 10cv327, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria). The Infineon case is In the Matter of Random Access Memory Semiconductors and Products Containing Same, Including Memory Modules, 337-707, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).
Quelle: www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=at1yBaqshQnw
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