Mainland chip producer says its clients might have used intellectual property of TSMC
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) yesterday blamed its customers' chip designs for the dispute over alleged intellectual property infringement between the world's biggest and third-largest semiconductor foundries.
SMIC agreed earlier this month to pay US$175 million over six years to top-ranked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to end legal wrangling going back to 2002.
TSMC had accused SMIC of poaching employees with hefty stock awards and options and inducing them to steal company trade secrets. It also alleged infringement of several patents.
Speaking for the first time since the out-of-court settlement, SMIC chairman Richard Chang Ru-gin said the company's problems were based on customers' designs that 'might have used some of TSMC's intellectual property' which SMIC had no way of checking.
'When more and more customers moved from Taiwan to [the] mainland, the Taiwan government was not very happy, nor were our competitors there, and in a few cases they found our customers using their [intellectual property],' Mr Chang said. 'Instead of suing our customers they sued us. Our customers defended us, but the whole thing became so complicated that all of us agreed to settle the issue out of court.'
Mr Chang also hit back at 'hostile elements' in Taiwan that were the source of rumours affecting the firm since it was founded in 2000.