TSMC announced today that the company filed a number of lawsuits against GlobalFoundries in the US, Germany, and Singapore. The chipmaker accuses GlobalFoundries of infringes 25 patents which relate to TSMC’s 40nm, 28nm, 22nm, 14nm, and 12nm processes.
TSMC said it requests the court to issue an injunction prohibiting GlobalFoundries from producing and selling infringing semiconductor products, and at the same time proposing substantial damages for the illegal use of the company’s semiconductor patent technology and sales of infringing products. However, TSMC did not disclose the specific amount of compensation.
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It is worth mentioning that on August 26, GlobalFoundries in the US and Germany accused TSMC of infringing 16 patents. In addition, it requested the US Trade Commission (ITC) to implement an import ban to prevent the use of TSMC’s products by its major and downstream customers.
However, TSMC believes that these allegations are baseless and lack any merit. It expressed confidence in its technology and customers’ commitments. “We will do our best to counterattack in every possible way to protect our proprietary technology.”
TSMC’s market share in the foundry market is 49.2% for Q2 2019. Others include Samsung (18.0%), GlobalFoundaries (8.7%), UMC (7.5%) and SMIC (5.1%).